That's the best place for any credit card used to consolidate debt. Keep it separate from other credit cards.

You like that card because it charges an incredibly low promotional rate on all the balances transferred from other accounts. But it will impose a much higher rate for any new purchases you make.

It will also apply all payments to that portion of your debt that's charged the lowest interest rate. In other words, you have to pay off the least-expensive debt first.

Any purchases immediately create a new balance that's charged as much as the old high-interest-rate debt you're trying to escape and it's impossible to get rid of until all of the old debt is retired.

The Stop Unfair Practices in Credit Card Act sponsored by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., seeks to put an end to that. It would require credit cards to apply payments to the most costly debt first.

But that change is a long way from becoming law. Lock it in a drawer.