Q: Do you tip at restaurants before or after the taxes are figured into the bill?

A: We went to two websites, tipping.org and wisegeek.com to get this answer. The general tipping rule at restaurants is to leave 15-to-20 percent if you received good service. And that 15-to-20 percent should be calculated before taxes have been added to the bill. Then round that number up to the next dollar if the service was better than average.

Q: Can I use an energy efficient bulb in place of three-way bulbs?

A: We took this question to the Alliance to Save Energy. It says compact fluorescent bulbs can be used in 3-way lamps. In fact, there are compact fluorescent bulbs made specifically for such lamps. These bulbs act like regular 3-ways, and go from dim to brighter to brightest while saving energy. And the Alliance assures us lamps are just as safe using energy efficient bulbs.

Q: Does non-chlorine bleach disinfects as well as liquid chlorine bleach?

A: We took this question to Clorox for the answer. It says its non-chlorine Clorox-2 bleach is not a registered disinfectant. Only Clorox bleach, regular scent, is a registered disinfectant. Clorox says you cannot substitute non-chlorine bleach for chlorine bleach for anything you want to disinfect.

Q: An e-mail floating around on the internet says "if you're being robbed at an ATM and enter your pin number in reverse, the police are notified immediately." Is this true?

A: We found the answer to this question at a website called Snopes.com. It says in 1998 a Chicago businessman patented his "Safety-Pin-System. That system would alert police that a crime was in progress if an ATM consumer keyed his PIN number in reverse. In effect, this would serve as a "panic code." But there's been little interest in the banking community. There have been bills in the legislatures of Georgia and Kansas about this system, but neither is law yet.

Q: I must have missed the report, but how does I get a free credit report from the three credit bureaus.

A: We've reported on this several times but we're happy to do it again. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the three credit agencies to provide you a free credit report once a year. There are two ways to do this. Go to annualcreditreport.com. From there you can get to the three credit bureaus for free credit reports. Or call 1-877-322-8228, But do not contact the credit agencies individually or the reports will not be free.