1) Now that I have Venure (YAY 
), I am satisfied with my current cards. I will be using SM (grocery, gas, amazon), Freedom (dining), Venture (everything else). Would it hurt my credit score, having all the other credit cards sitting idle? Or should I use rest of the cards once in a while just to show some activity?
2) Currently I am using Freedom for dining (restaurant, fast food, coffee etc) for 5% back. I am planning to use Amex Hilton after this quarter. Is that the right choice? I can use Venture for 2% but Amex Hilton gives me 5 points for each dollar. I read somewhere that, HHonor point is valued at .5 cents.. thats about 2.5% back. Am I calculating right?
3) How do I find out which card is my oldest card? If I request a free annual credit report, would it have all the history?
@Anonymous wrote:1) Now that I have Venure (YAY
2) Currently I am using Freedom for dining (restaurant, fast food, coffee etc) for 5% back. I am planning to use Amex Hilton after this quarter. Is that the right choice? I can use Venture for 2% but Amex Hilton gives me 5 points for each dollar. I read somewhere that, HHonor point is valued at .5 cents.. thats about 2.5% back. Am I calculating right?
3) How do I find out which card is my oldest card? If I request a free annual credit report, would it have all the history?
Congrats on the Venture. Feel free to leave your cards idle but keep them alive with a yearly gum run
Get your free credit reports at Credit Karma...several updates a month. Don't pay much attention to the score though; not much good for anything (the Score on your Sallie Mae would be the FICO score to go by) On the Credit Karma report it will have a section for accounts. Look for the account with the oldest "OPEN DATE"
Gum run.. great idea 
as for Credit karma.. I thought it's a paid service.
@Anonymous wrote:Gum run.. great idea
as for Credit karma.. I thought it's a paid service.
Credit Karma is 100% free. As the above said, pay no attention to the Score. It's a FAKO score and not in anyway related to FICO. It can be decently accurate but it can also be totally wrong. However, they do have other information that might be useful to you.
@Anonymous wrote:1) Now that I have Venure (YAY
2) Currently I am using Freedom for dining (restaurant, fast food, coffee etc) for 5% back. I am planning to use Amex Hilton after this quarter. Is that the right choice? I can use Venture for 2% but Amex Hilton gives me 5 points for each dollar. I read somewhere that, HHonor point is valued at .5 cents.. thats about 2.5% back. Am I calculating right?
3) How do I find out which card is my oldest card? If I request a free annual credit report, would it have all the history?
Most travel bloggers value Hilton points somewhere around half a cent each as you say.
However, you should understand that Hilton points (like any hotel points) do not have a fixed value. You can get a better or a worse deal depending on what Hotels you book with them. I would say that 0.5 cents is rather optimistic, usually the rate will be a bit lower. Furthermore, Hilton can at any point devalue the points by increasing the number of points needed to book a particular room. They did this about a year ago, it was a sad moment.
So, if you want to use the Hilton the card, I advise to not do this if you only spend $100 a month on the card. It will take you a long time to accumulate enough points for a redemption. It might be a good choice if you 1) spend a lot on the card or 2) if you already have a good chunk of points in your HHonors account and just need a few hundred/thousand points to "Top Off" for a booking.