Gym Membership Cancellation Charges

birdie87

Hi Guys

Hope this is the correct area to put this.

I called up cancel my gym membership (which I haven't used for about 3 months). Firstly, they're telling me that my last payment bounced (I genuinely cancelled my direct debit by accident as I had never heard of the company) so I have to pay them a ten pounds charge as well as the last months membership that I'm not going to use. Whatever.

When I joined I told them that I might be moving away between six months to one year so I cannot committ to the full contract period of two years. She hand-wrote in a clause in my contract saying that if I was moving more than five miles away within that time period that I would be able to cancel early with no charges. I'm moving on a working holiday to Thailand at the end of February and moving to my mums in the mean-time.

Some horrible outsourced gym management company called "ashbourne management services" run their bills. She's saying that there is some small print within all contracts that say you need to provide proof that you've moved away if your cancelling the contract. Either a plane ticket (which I'm yet to purchase) or three different types of bills or bank statements (utility or otherwise). I'm moving to my mums for two weeks so I won't be paying any bills. I could get bank statements. She also told me that this proof will need to be dated before the next payment (9th of February) or I will have to pay for the next month. This is highly unlikely to happen in reality.

I've asked them to send me a copy of my contract through the post.

My question is, can they do this? Are they even allowed to? It's a complete money making scam. I hate companies like that, designed purely to rip people off in small print. They don't offer any value to the world they're just bloodsuckers trying to get extra money out of people.

What happens if, because I'm disputing it, I don't pay next months whilst it's in dispute. Will stuff like that affect my credit rating significantly? Could I get any serious action taken against me. I'm half tempted just to ignore the p***s when I move house but I want to make sure it cannot effect me criminally or credit rating wise.

I know I'm stupid for mis-placing my original contract. I know I am also stupid for not reading the small print (if it is even there).

Let me know your thoughts on this. Is there any protection under law? If a hand-written amendment is made does that deem small-print from the original contract as correct still.

Thanks,

Dave