cancelled gym membership?

Doglover88

i signed up for a 12 month contract at a local gym 6 months ago, £40 pcm. 6 months into it I am moving house so no longer need it as Im moving quite a way away. Ive cancelled my Direct Debit and since had a couple of snotty letters to my old address from the gym. Latest one is threatening to hand over my debt of £120 to their debt collection agency. Question is will i be chased up? I can fob them off with a different address but could they put a mark against my name, credit wise? And whats the chances of someone turning up at my old house wanting the monies owed?
cheers
glen

fatboyonadiet

They'll probably cahse you up, especially if it's passed to a debt collector. You could have got out of this by informing them your moving away, most gyms are quite strict but normally have rule that if you move so many miles away you can cancel, I've used this rule once when I changed jobs and carrying on going to this gym would have meant a 50 mile round trip!

eml_3

The best thing to do would be to try and negotiate with them. You have signed an agreement to pay them £40pcm for 12 months, whether you use the gym in that time or not is really immaterial to them. Check your terms and conditions as there may be a break clause if you are moving too far away. However, they could argue that unless your move was completely unforeseen, it is your decision to deprive yourself of access to the gym.

You may be able to offer them a reduced sum in full and final settlement. Debt collection agencies are quite good at finding people and letting this go to court and acquiring a CCJ is not going to help you in the future.

maggie1976

I was a member of a gym and we were moving house. I rang them and asked them what I had to do to cancel, and they just said stop paying, come in and fill a form in and that's it. I stopped paying, never got around to filling in the the form and never heard from them again. Probably different though as I paid monthly but hadn't signed up for a 12 month deal.

Maybe calling them for a chat would help?