I had to leave the last one, sadly, after a bunch of women in some municipality’s weight loss contest joined, and they’re all there at the same time I am, making showering impossible–limited shower room. I can’t change my workout time-as it is, I am there at 4:30a, and have limited time before work.
So I have found another that will work, but the only method of payment is direct debit from my checking acct. Which makes me nervous. Short of setting up another checking acct. or finding another gym that works (Nope, I tried), does anyone do this and do you feel pretty confident in it? It is a National chain, albeit a franchise.
It’s a problem only if you stop going and forget to cancel your membership. Ask the gym if its O.K. For you to set up the auto-pay. You can then make changes anytime the need arises.
That’s a thought. I am pretty regular–last gym for 2 years, and only missed weekends and an occasional day.
Yeah, my needs are very specific for time, distance from work, and as I live an hour from work, I really need to shower before work. I like avoiding rush hour on the freeways in the morning, thus my preference to go so early.
I had this from Lifetime Fitness. They charged me for a lot of imaginary services I never ordered or used. When I got sick of “honest mistakes” every single month I cancelled, and they continued charging my account for the next two months. (This was not the full billing cycle notice that bites a lot of people. It was two months after that.)
I would never allow another company that kind of access to my checking account.
I haven’t had any problems with auto-pay with Shapes during my three year membership. They do take out an additional “annual fee”, which I was not aware of (since I hadn’t read the teeny tiny fine print and no one mentioned it). From what I understand after researching it, it seems to be standard practice with most gyms, or at least those in my area.
Every gym I’ve gone to in the past 10 years had the auto pay option. The gym I go to now allows you to pay monthly at the desk, but the fee is higher…they give you a discount for auto pay (checking or credit card) and I’ve never had a problem. They give an even better discount if you pay for a full year in advance, and even better if you pay for two years in advance.
I wouldn’t do it, because gyms are notoriously dishonest (or chronically careless with their billing, if you prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt). We pay for ours with a credit card.
Giving any company at all access to your checking account isn’t generally a good idea with few exceptions. Giving a gym access to it is just asking for disaster. That a gym could even operate asking people for such just tells me there are an awful lot of gullible people out there.
Ok just curious - I’m in oz and when I pay anything by direct debit I set it up and I have total control (cancel, change the amount, whatever). I take it that it is different over your way. I would be very nervous about handing over my bank details.
I had this same problem with ATC. They do not mention an annual fee. They also don’t mention if you cancel you have to complete the year despite saying “NO CONTRACT” in all their advertisements.
We had to go to our bank and complain about unauthorized activity after losing a few hundred dollars to them after we cancelled (it was two memberships). They then started sending us collection notices, but at least they weren’t able to get into our account anymore.
The kind of direct debit DummyGladHands is talking about requires you to give them your account number. They then debit your account via electronic check.
So, even if I went to my bank and said: ‘Don’t allow these guys to debit my account any more’, they couldn’t do it. The only way to stop them is to close the account and open up a new one. (Even with the same bank.)
As to the OP. Fuck no. I’ve turned down insurance companies that tried to pull this shit on me.
As mentioned already some gyms are notorious for continued billing after you cancel. I researched the gyms in my area via yelp reviews and this was a common complaint for a surprising amount of them.
You actually can put a stop payment on it, a lot like a cheque.
I would suggest opening an account for just this payment. Give them that number and keep a minimal amount in there. Most gyms do the direct debit, IME, unless you pay for the entire year outright.
I have a monthly direct debit w/ a bank that will automatically reject any charge that’s more than I have in my account; so I only have the account to pay that and one other bill (a mortgage w/ said bank) I only keep enough money in it to cover those. If they tried to debit me and the money’s not there my bank would simply refuse and I wouldn’t get an NSF.