2 months notice to quit gym!

M

mainie

Registered User
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I'm moving out of the area where my gym is and decided to cancel my membership. I went into the gym and they tell me to fill in this form and there's a note on it saying theres a 2 month notice period required and I need to pay 2 further months direct debits before my membership will be cancelled!!!!! what a pile of ****!!!! I want to call my bank and cancel the direct debit but am not sure if I can do this. Does anyone know?
 
What does the original membership agreement say about cancelling memberships?
 
I had a similar issue with NAC. They told me it was 1 month. I asked her why does it take 1 month to cancel a direct debit. She said its policy. I said, thats ok, I'll do it for you. I did and heard nothing else. Although, they were closed for about 6 months soon after that.
 
Yes - I've always cancelled DDs unilaterally although never in contentious circumstances. I seem to recall somebody saying that the DD required the authorisation of the payee to be cancelled but that was not my experience. On the other hand I always wrote to the payee once I had cancelled the DD at the bank just to be sure.
 
Do you have a contract with the gym? If so, what does it have as the notice period? They're not saying it takes them two months to cancel the direct debit, they're saying that you need to pay them for the notice period.
 
Seagull said:
Do you have a contract with the gym? If so, what does it have as the notice period? They're not saying it takes them two months to cancel the direct debit, they're saying that you need to pay them for the notice period.
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Yeah of course they want payment for the 2 months but its a bit outrageous. Gyms often arent that cheap, especially when paying via direct debit. 2 months, even 1 month is too much. If they set a reasonable cancellation fee then that would make more sense.
 
So what does your membership form/agreement say on this matter? If it says 2 months payment on (premature?) cancellation and you signed this agreement then presumably you are obliged to pay. If it doesn't stipulate such a charge then you can argue the toss with them.
 
To be honest I don't know what it said. It was over a year and a half ago that I joined. I guess if it says it in the contract then I have no choice but to pay it but it's very frustrating. I may ask them for a copy of the contract
 
Another salutary lesson to others that the time to read contracts/agreements is before signing them.
 
I don't think that's a good idea especially given that there is no hard evidence that they are acting other than within their rights under the relevant membership agreement.
 
Ok, I rang them back about it and they say its in the T&C's. No reason, just policy, i.e to get as much money out of us as possible. You don't really think about what'll happen when you leave when you're signing up.

So anyway, I'm just wondering whats the worst that could happen if I just cancelled my DD and then sent them a letter to say I'd done that? What they gonna do? Sue me?
 
I suppose they could sue you. Before that they might pass the debt onto a collection agency. Alternatively they might just forget about it.
 
About 1.5yrs ago, decided to leave a well known gym on northside, put this in writing and then cancelled the DD.

They called a couple a times (however I kept missing their calls....) and they wrote to me once explaining that I had one months payment (notice period one month) outstanding on my account. Never heard any more since!
 
Can such service providers register such bad debts with the ICB - directly or indirectly?
 
My well-known gym on southside did the same thing.
When I rang up to cancel, they said my request needed to go before some subscriptions meeting, which was only held once a month, so I'd have to wait (and pay for) a month before being able to cancel.
I just stopped the direct debit and never heard anything again from them.
 
That seems to be the general consensus as my sister did the same thing with her previous gym. Don't want to risk a bad debt record though, especially as I'll be drawing down my mortgage cheque in a few weeks..
 
I just recently got a mortgage and there was no mention of bad credit history so I assume they never took it further... it is really worth the hassle for such little money (in their eyes) At least you stayed for more than a year which is normally an issue!
 
ClubMan said:
Can such service providers register such bad debts with the ICB - directly or indirectly?
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Nope. Only members of the ICB can register bad debts. Even if they got a district court judgment they still could not tell the ICB about it.
 
Just ask your bank to stop this particular debit going through your account. Put it in writing, don't forget to date it. If the gym contacts you about the cancelled direct debit, which they won't, just say that you are reorganising your finances/bank account and would prefer to pay your membership another way. Ask them what other payment options are available to you. Enter in to lengthy correspondence on the subject. I can assure you they will write you off as a lost case....
 
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