I fully respect your cautioning the OP, but I differ on the "too much" warning and on the severity of the effect. Short histories in and of themselves are not the problem; it's just that long histories are better. How do we get long histories? We apply for and keep cards, obviously. Having multiple credit cards better ensures most will "survive" for a long time. I have decades old cards; some have fallen to the wayside due to the issuer ending programs. Having many ensures some long histories.

Ideally, the OP should keep the current card and get the new one too. That obviates the short-history concern. Now for the supposed "hurt" of too much credit (as if!), this concern is much ado about nothing. The fallacy is twofold.

1) Too Many Applications is Bad: This comes into play if a potential lender thinks you're applying for credit because you're in trouble. And while all applications are counted, it's really the rejected applications that become most troubling, because those rejections mean other lenders are not willing to take a chance on you. Applying for and getting credit is not bad, but it feeds into the second fallacy.

2) Too Much Credit is Bad: The supposed fear lenders may have in this case is that the consumer may indulge too much (go hog wild!) in all that credit and become over extended. It's akin to the worry you experience when your brother, a recovering alcoholic, tells you he got a job at a bar. Yeah, maybe you should worry. But if it's your sister, the teetotaling goody-goody who doesn't even take cough syrup when she's sick, then maybe you shouldn't worry too much. (Yes, I know the quiet ones...) Anyway, lenders will not automatically assume you cannot handle your credit simply because you have a lot of it. There has to be something else on your report that would lead them to believe otherwise.

Finally, let me say that even if you reject all my learned and sound advice and assume all applications and every additional dollar of credit is bad, fine. These "hits" are among the least consequential in the universe of credit hits. As long as you have paid your bills on time, any minuscule hit from one credit card application is so utterly negligible as to be ridiculous.

One concurs.