direct debit guarantee

TheMeerkat

hi,

a year and a half ago, i wanted to cancel my gym membership. i sent an email to the gym and they sent me an email confirming that my membership has been cancelled. however, it turns out that what they did instead is UPGRADE my membership and continue to take payments from me via direct debit for a year and a half after they old me that they cancelled it. i showed their email to my bank and the bank refunded me all the money since this date. i was not expecting a resolution this quick and i'm now worried that i may have impacted my credit score. does claiming money back via this mechanism affect my credit score? FYI, i have notified the gym -- the guy on the phone admitted that this looks like an obvious error but told me that it could take up to 8 weeks to sort this out. can they now show missed payments in my credit file?

[Deleted User]

If the payments were not authorised, there is no reason why they would record them as missed payments on your credit file.

DCFC79

TheMeerkat wrote: »

hi,

a year and a half ago, i wanted to cancel my gym membership. i sent an email to the gym and they sent me an email confirming that my membership has been cancelled. however, it turns out that what they did instead is UPGRADE my membership and continue to take payments from me via direct debit for a year and a half after they old me that they cancelled it. i showed their email to my bank and the bank refunded me all the money since this date. i was not expecting a resolution this quick and i'm now worried that i may have impacted my credit score. does claiming money back via this mechanism affect my credit score? FYI, i have notified the gym -- the guy on the phone admitted that this looks like an obvious error but told me that it could take up to 8 weeks to sort this out. can they now show missed payments in my credit file?

Have you checked your credit reports ?

Find a lender who will accept your credit score, you will find that credit scores arent seen by lenders, the credit history is important, read some of the threads on credit scores.

Im pretty confident using the DDG will not affect your credit report as they are unauthorised.

Im confused bt why did you recently contact the gym ?

TheMeerkat

thanks for the reply. this has literally happened a few hours ago, so i doubt it's made it to my credit report. the gym is virgin and i also have a mobile contract with virgin, which i've recently cancelled. whenever i still saw "virgin" on my statement, i quickly assumed it's the phone contract. it's only after i cancelled the phone contract that i noticed it was the gym.

i'm mainly worried because, in their systems, it still shows my account as active. i think whoever sent me the email confirming the cancellation forgot to actually cancel the thing. i contacted them because i didn't want any confusion regarding why i'm claiming the money back/make sure there's no fraud.

tenchy

I'm just trying to get my head around how gym membership equates to credit, as in "credit reference bureau". I assume we're talking fixed monthly payments, which might even be in advance?

cjmillsnun

If they’ve made an error then you should not suffer. You had an email confirming cancellation of your membership. If they try anything then this is your recourse. This is originally their mistake.

stevenhp1987

If you have it in writing (email) about the cancellation, and them accepting it, then there is no problem.

I've never seen a gym report to a credit file... but even if they did, if what you say is accurate, you have no need to worry. They may report inaccurately for a short term, for which you could get around £50 compensation (max, if you are lucky) as it will all be "they owe £x amount, they paid £x amount; no arrears" - nothing damaging.

I'm more intrigued as to how you didn't notice them take money for a year and a half! I could understand (actually I struggle, I check my online banking everyday) a payment or two, but a year and a half suggests you've never looked at your bank statements at all!!!

Your priority should be to convince yourself to check your statements, online, almost daily; this will stop any untoward actions happening in the future.