Nothing lasts forever. Like prescription medicines and milk, credit cards have expiration dates too. Decades ago credit cards expired annually and new cards were issued like clockwork. The main reason was fraud prevention. Back then the technology did not exist for credit card companies to access and verify customer accounts easily. Before electronic authorizations, cashiers actually looked in printed books by their registers to see if those presenting the cards were legitimate. An expired credit card was another safety net.
Credit card expiration dates are a hold over from those times. Now credit cards have expiration dates several years after the first issuance of a card. The company issuing the plastic determines the length of your credit card expiration date. The credit card expiration date set by the issuing company is most commonly a way to prevent credit card fraud by providing another step in the verification process. Credit cards also expire as the magnetic strip on the back of the card has a limited lifetime as well.
Since the magnetic strip becoming useless is more of a timed event, credit cards tend to expire between two to four years. The actual length of use and subsequent replacement is deemed by the issuing company and therefore differ as sometimes, there may be information updates included on those magnetic strips. Visa, American Express, Discover, MasterCard and all department store credit cards decide when to issue new cards. The overall industry standard is three years for how long until a credit card expires.
The determination of a credit card life span can also be a marketing tool for the issuing company. If you have not actively used your card for a long period of time, by issuing you a new card, it may jolt you into remembering that you have that line of credit. When that credit card expires is up to the discretion of the issuer.