Cancelled direct debit with gym, received an email from ‘Credit Resolution Services.

Trademarkwine

Hey so I could really use some advice with this, as I realise I may partially be in the wrong, but I’m unsure as I think I legally fulfilled the minimum part of my contract.

I signed up to Xercise4less in November 2014, and had to pay £9.99 for a minimum of 11 months. This I did, and by this point had moved away from the University city where I had this gym membership. Stupidly, and I don’t know why, I didn’t contact them to tell them I was moving away, and I confused the monthly payments on my statements as another gym I had signed up to back home.

I have since moved to the States, and went through cancelling all my direct debits back home, and cancelled this one from Harlands (a couple months back, not exactly sure when it was) directly from my HSBC app.

I then received an email from ‘Credit Resolution Services’ which appears to be operated by Harlands threatening me with legal action if I didn’t pay £171.47 or respond within 10 days to an email dated 11th October. They said they had sent an initial letter (I received none to my email, so I guess it could have gone to my old house) and this was essentially the last chance.

Upon going over my contract with them, I’m confused because it seems to suggest I can cancel my direct debit at any time with my bank after the 11 months is up.... but I did fail to inform them. I vaguely remember a phone call telling them I’d moved away because I’d gone to New Zealand at that time, but I have no record of this, and I guess it wouldn’t stand up in court.

What do I do? Do I HAVE to pay this? I checked my credit report and it seemed normal. Any advice would be much appreciated. Again, I know I probably made a mistake, but figured I’d be okay given it was past the initial contract.
Thanks.

missile

You have an obligation to advise them you want to cancel the contract, details of how and what notice may be required will be in the contract you signed.
If you did cancel by phone that should be good enough.

eddddy

Trademarkwine wrote: »

Upon going over my contract with them, I’m confused because it seems to suggest I can cancel my direct debit at any time with my bank after the 11 months is up....

Are you sure it says that? It more likely says that you can contact the gym any time after 11 months is up to cancel/terminate the contract.

Some contracts do say that you can terminate them by cancelling the direct debit (e.g. some online subscriptions) - but I suspect that a gym contract would not say that.

Have you now followed the cancellation/termination instructions? If not, you could still be racking up monthly fees.

mattyprice4004

Definitely a case of you are in the wrong...

You have the right to cancel the DD, but this does NOT remove your liabilities for the payments.
The letter will have gone to your old address, how are they to know you moved if you didn’t tell them?

You need to take responsibility first of all and admit this is your mistake, however I’m not sure they’d bother enforcing if you don’t live in the UK anymore.

bris

Cancelling a DD does not cancel a contract. To cancel a contract you need to do it according to the T&C's you signed up to.


Do you have to pay it? Well that depends, are you coming home any time soon, if not then after 6 years it will just fade away and become statute barred.

custardy

Looks like all you had to do was fill this in....

https://www.xercise4less.co.uk/membership/cancel-your-membership/

KeithP

OP, if you are not coming back to the UK, you can safely ignore this issue and any debt collectors. It simply would not be cost effective for a UK company to chase such a small debt in New Zealand.