I've never had a card just disappear. The card always converts to some other program, sometimes worthwhile (e.g. the SallieMae which went from a flat 2% to the 5% gas/grocery/bookstore card), and othertimes not so much (e.g. four different BofA cards which converted to the CashRewards 3/2/1). Often (though not always) there's a "grandfathered" period where the card is no longer available for new applicants, but current cardholders can still use the card at its existing terms. In my experience, the median time period for that is about a year; in other words, even the last people to sign up for the card at least get a year at the signup terms before it gets nerfed. If a card program is terminated less than a year after it's closed to new applicants, I'm a bit surprised. If it continues on for much more than a year after it's closed to new applicants, I'm surprised. Of course, my Chase Flex Perks card, which was a conversion from my WaMu Visa (which was itself a conversion from Providian) is still a Chase Flex Perks card, and that program was terminated, what, eight years ago?
One of my regrets from a credit history standpoint is letting our old Circuit City Visa cards atrophy and get cancelled. We had two, and when Circuit City went bust, the cards were converted to some lame Chase program, so I just stopped using them, until Chase pulled the plug on them. They had a start date of 1994! My current portfolio only goes back to 2003. Boy, would I love to have a couple of 22 year old cards to help out my AAoA and balance out all of those new cards I keep opening. 
Chris.
@longtimelurker wrote:
@Themanwhocan wrote:And then there is the option where the card becomes even better over time. For example, the Priceline visa. It was 2% cash back, then they switched it to 1% and the existing cards were grandfathered. Then they added a 10% bonus when redeeming points for travel, and that bonus was even added to the grandfathered cards, making those 2.22% cards when points are used for travel, 2% otherwise.
The Priceline experience is what should give Sallie Mae users some hope. Barclays has continued the grandfathered rate for quite some time. Of course, they could decice to do something very different with Sallie Mae, but hopefully not.
The Citi Forward represents another possibility. After grandfathering, it can just be nerfed, without being PCd to another card.
Did the Forward finally get nerfed? It was still giving me 5x points on restaurants and movies as of my last statement.
May 2013
I have a grandfathered Cap1 No Hassle Miles (NHM) Ultra card, that I originally received in 2012 -- it is basically the same as the "Venture", before it was actually called the Venture, as it was the immediate predecessor card to it. Later, Cap1 for some years offered its Venture and NHM card products side-by-side, although eventually, as far as I am aware and to the best of my knowledge, the NHM card line was discontinued in favor of the Venture as Cap1's single premium travel card product going forward, and all NHM cards were converted to a different card product, like Venture, Quicksilver, etc. I guess the only reason my NHM card stayed intact exactly as it was (and is today) is b/c of a technicality or quirk of sorts, where in late 2014, I temporarily closed down the NHM card b/c I was unhappy with the AF. When I read on the forum that some Cap1 cardholders had experienced some level of success with having AF on their cards permanently removed, in early 2015, I called the Cap1 EO -- this is when they were still allowing direct call-ins -- to see if they would potentially be willing to re-open the card. They were amenable to that, and they even kindly went even further, and agreed to permanently waive the AF under the re-opened account. But b/c the account was re-opened after (again AFAIK) all NHM cardholders were converted to different products, my NHM card's terms stayed exactly as they were when I first opened in 2012, other than the perma-waive of the AF -- 2% cashback on every purchase, redeemable at the full 2% value if redeemed for travel-related expenses or for gift cards. It could just as easily be called a Venture by another name, since so far as I am aware, all of the card terms are virtually identical. I have often wondered if again because the quirk of how the card was closed and then re-opened after the Cap1 NHM card branding went extinct if I am perhaps the only Cap1 customer who still has a NHM card product, which I guess is a kinda a lil sad maybe, when I think about the card in terms of nostalgic purposes, since it has been an excellent card for me and remains to this day one of my very favorite rewards cards? 
@Anonymous wrote:I've never had a card just disappear. The card always converts to some other program, sometimes worthwhile (e.g. the SallieMae which went from a flat 2% to the 5% gas/grocery/bookstore card), and othertimes not so much (e.g. four different BofA cards which converted to the CashRewards 3/2/1). Often (though not always) there's a "grandfathered" period where the card is no longer available for new applicants, but current cardholders can still use the card at its existing terms. In my experience, the median time period for that is about a year; in other words, even the last people to sign up for the card at least get a year at the signup terms before it gets nerfed. If a card program is terminated less than a year after it's closed to new applicants, I'm a bit surprised. If it continues on for much more than a year after it's closed to new applicants, I'm surprised. Of course, my Chase Flex Perks card, which was a conversion from my WaMu Visa (which was itself a conversion from Providian) is still a Chase Flex Perks card, and that program was terminated, what, eight years ago?
One of my regrets from a credit history standpoint is letting our old Circuit City Visa cards atrophy and get cancelled. We had two, and when Circuit City went bust, the cards were converted to some lame Chase program, so I just stopped using them, until Chase pulled the plug on them. They had a start date of 1994! My current portfolio only goes back to 2003. Boy, would I love to have a couple of 22 year old cards to help out my AAoA and balance out all of those new cards I keep opening.
Chris.
Sallie Mae started out as flat 2%? I've never heard this before.