The following articles should clear your doubts:

Debt Consolidation - Get Out Of Debt

How to Hire a Debt Counselor?

What is Debt Relief?

Debt Management and Building Wealth

How to lower your debts?

How to reduce debt : How to lower your expenses?

debt consolidation

getting out of debt is pretty easy with a debt consolidation plan
however it may get a bit tricky at times, I suggest you get as much information as possible online on this first,

a good place to start in my humble opinion is:

There is some useful advice here.

I’m going thru same thing with lots of pitfalls. I must refinance because of circumstances but I am only going to refinance to a fixed amount and not take any cash out.

Refinancing is when you refinance something like a car or a home.

Credit consolidation is when you combine all of your bills and make just one monthly payment.

You should get a bill consolidation loan, to save money and to buy your new car.

Refinancing reduces your current payments and you often can get money.

Debt consolidation is combining loans together.

So, refinancing is what you want.