With credit cards it pays to look around. Credit card companies are always introducing new incentives and bonus offers. Reward rates have also gotten more aggressive, so if you are routinely using an older card with a 1% (or lower) reward rate and hefty annual fee, we’d start looking for a new replacement.
There’s no harm in applying for a new card. Each new card application will temporarily impact your credit score a few points but it’s only temporary. Just make sure you are qualified for the card by reading our detailed profiles – you want to apply for the right card.
Many people we talk with are worried about closing or cancelling old credit cards – thinking that their credit score will be lowered. But that just isn’t the case. Cancelling an old credit card you are not actively using won’t impact your score. The history of a closed credit card account remains on your credit history for ten years. By the time a cancelled account falls of your credit score it will be ancient history – you’ll have a decade of new history to replace it.