Consumer Law/rights in the UK?

Well, they won't send it to a debt collector whilst you are paying them all that interest.

Your best bet is to go to the Citizens Advice Bureau - they have all the up to date info on the legalities at the fingertips - they will also contact the company on your behalf..to negotiate a reduction in the payments and a possible interest freeze - if they cannot help, they will point you to the right people. In some cases, it is better to take the hit and make yourself bankrupt......

If you stopped paying and they sent it to a debt collection agent, or took it to court - the court would almost always take YOUR offer of payment to settle the debt - in some well known cases, they court have actually told companies to accept £1.00 per week...

there is only 1 way they CAN help

By increasing your monthly repayments so it covers interests+repays a bit of the capital

You say "the minimum they'd except was £100 a month which I agreed to but it turns out that that doesn't even cover the interest each month"

This says that YOU wanted to pay less than £100/month but they would not let you

Before you were forced to paying £100/month did you not find out how much of that £100 was interest?

It aint ridiculous, its simple maths -

You have been paying less then the interest on your debt, so the unpaid interest has been added to it - result is the debt AND the interest on it has increased.

That aint their fault - YOU wanted to pay even less than the £100.you did pay.

What is the interest on your debt NOW?- (you should get a monthly statement from them - if not then ASK)

What good would it do them sending a debt collector? -

Not only does it NOT stop the interest being added, the cost of sending the debt collectors will be added to your debt. (interest will continue to be added until the debt is repaid)

I realise that this may seem a bit hard- but the sooner you grasp the financial and mathematical realities the better.

There is NO way out unless either

1) YOU increase your monthly payments to cover interest on the amount you NOW owe

or

2) they write off some of the interest/debt so that you owe less, but you STILL have to increase your monthly repayments (but not as much as in 1)

or

3) they write off the debt (extremely unlikely)

or

4) you go bankrupt

Dont know why you are asking about consumer law/rights?

you entered into an agreement to repay money - It was you fault you did not grasp you were not repaying enough, YOU even wanted to pay less.than you did

Nobody else had an obligation to do anything about this.

Why should they?

If you cant be bothered to find out how much the interest was, why should anybody else do it for you?

Is there a way to stop the interest on your account? Yeah, pay your debt back in full or increase your monthly payment to more than just the interest. Until then, they have every legal and moral right to charge you interest. Also, the interest rate and other terms (like your bill increasing) were all agreed upon by you when you signed. You act as if they're doing something wrong by "refusing to budge" on the terms YOU agreed to. If they decided to charge you more than you agreed to (like you're giving them LESS than what you agreed to), would you take it easy on them and pay more? Didn't think so, so why do you think they're somehow obligated in any way to "budge" and help you at all?

They're doing you a favor already by letting you set up a payment plan instead of suing you in court.

So, you can either keep paying the 100 until you find a new job and paying back the debt in full is easier, or you can stop paying and get sued. Your choice.

try http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/ - they are a charitable trust spevcialising in this - CABx although good are not specialists