How does Consolidating Credit work?

[omgitsphilly]

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. 

I am just trying to grasp how it works and how it affects your credit score.

Thank you

[user5387]

You get an installment loan and pay off CC balances.

Revolving (CC) utilization has a much bigger impact on scores than installment utilization, and this is why scores typically go up when you do this.

The downside would be taking out an installment loan, paying off the CCs, and then continuing to use the CCs heavily and end up with a deeper problem than before.