Credit card annual fee and picking another card

[dragonwalker]

I have excellent credit. The first credit card I ever got will start to charge a $55 annual fee in several months and I'm 90% sure that I will be getting a new card to replace it. I'm trying to minimize the impact on my credit as much as possible and looking for some advice on perhaps getting another credit card. Below are the details of what I have:

1. Citibank Double Cash Mastercard with 2% back on all purchase, this is my primary card that I have had for about 8 years with a $9600 limit
2. American Express Blue Cash with between 1-3% cash back, I use on all grocery purchases to get the 3% back I've had for 5 years with a $7000 limit
3. Citibank Cash Rewards Card Mastercard with 1% back on purchaes, got about 10 years ago and is just a back up with a $5200 limit.
4.1st Financial Bank USA Mastercard with no rewards but has no foregin transaction fee that I got 12 years ago, it was my first card with a $18K limit and is the one looking to charge the fee.

So as you can see the closure of the 1FBUSA card may impact me more negatively than I'd like. I still don't beleive it justifies paying an annual fee. The two benefits of the card are the no foreign transaction fee and high credit limit. I do not travel abroad often but it's nice to have a card with that benefit when I do. My monthly usuage is about $1000 (which I pay off every month and never pay interest) so my utilization would still be quite low. Do you guys think I should get another card as a replacement? Obviosuly I don't want any card with an annual fee and no foreign transaction fee. A new card bonus would be a nice perk. I did try to call customer service on the fee and they would not budge. I have seveal months to make the final choice.   

[GizmoTX]

See if 1FBUSA has another card not charging an annual fee that you could convert your current card to, preserving its credit history. We did this with Citibank, converting their AAdvantage card to the DoubleCash card.

If not, then I’d close the fee charging card, because the slight hit you might get from reducing your average age isn’t worth paying the fee & not getting any rewards, but I’d open the replacement card before closing a card to not reduce the usage percentage. Capital One & BankAmerica have cards that have no foreign transaction fee, no annual fee, & rewards of cash back or travel points.

[ender]

See if 1FBUSA has another card not charging an annual fee that you could convert your current card to, preserving its credit history. We did this with Citibank, converting their AAdvantage card to the DoubleCash card.

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