Fit4Less Harlands gym cancellation

danblukk · 6 May 2017 at 4:36PM

I have been a member of Fit4Less for many years but recently became unemployed, my DD to Harlands failed to go through so in order to stop more bank charges if it failed again I cancelled the DD as I could no longer afford to go to the gym.
Truth be told I actually found a much cheaper and closer gym to my home.

Foolishly I didnt inform the gym and just cancelled the DD as I had done this with many gyms in the past and when asked how I cancel they just said cancel the DD. So I thought this was fine. Apparently not.

I have just recieved a letter from Harlands saying.

"We are writing in regards to our letter dated 19 April 2017 (I never received such letter must of got lost in the post) and have noticed that you have nt been in contact to discuss yopur memebership with Fit4Less. As stated in our first contact with you we have been notified by your bank that your DD has been cancelled and your payement due on 30th April 17 has unfortunately now been missed.

Due to this payment being missed you have incurred a £20 admin charge which leaves your account in arrears by £39.99. We kindly ask you to contact Harlands by 16 May 17 to pay your arrears and reinstate your DD. This will cease further charges being incurred.

PLease note you will not be able to access the club until this balance has been cleared.

We remind you that under the terms of your membership you need to provide 1 months notice and therefore need to make another monthly payment. Failure to do so will result in further action so please contact us immediately to resolve and avoid this.

If however you are having any problems with your membership or paymetns please contact Harlands and we will be happy to discuss your account."

Now at the minute I cant afford 40 quid, I cant afford 40 pence.

Do I swallow my pride and try to pay or start refusing, bearing in mind I already have depters like Moorcroft who really cant do much apart from send me letters and give me bad credit rating which I already have.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

sourcrates · 6 May 2017 at 5:29PM

Cancel the membership in the correct way first off, otherwise more charges will follow.
Write and explain to harlands you are in severe financial difficulty and cannot afford £40 right now (include your reasons why) the debt will rear its ugly head from time to time, so try and pay it when you can, or pay £1 a month.

May be worth looking at your debts as a whole, are you currently in a debt management plan at all ?

Maybe post up an SOA of your income and expenditure.

danblukk · 7 May 2017 at 3:20PM

Thanks for the reply

I actually looked in the Fit4Less FAQ section and it says to cancel your membership just cancel the DD and it will be canceled when the bank informs us.
I'm guessing their gripe is I did it after a failed payment and it wasnt 7 days in advance.

I'm not currently in dept management and am making very low payments to each dept for now. I don't see how dept management would really help with me being umemployed atm.

sourcrates · 7 May 2017 at 3:35PM

danblukk wrote: »

I don't see how dept management would really help with me being umemployed atm.

Are you a homeowner ?

Are your debts under 20k ?

Do you have assets worth over £1000 ?

Have a car worth over £1000 ?

Have £50 or less left after essential bills are paid ?

If you answered NO, YES, NO, NO YES you should consider a debt relief order.

danblukk · 7 May 2017 at 11:15PM

I think I tried for that before but because I have a student loan it takes my debts to above 20k.

MakeAChange_2 · 8 May 2017 at 10:01AM

This is not the first time I've heard of fit4less saying they have sent letters but haven't etc. I'm not saying you shouldn't pay as you did have the subscription, but I've heard a few times of them being a bit underhand.

Just try and clear it up, it's not worth the later agro, trust me I'm still dealing with debts I didn't deal with years ago! Now I wish I had. Good luck

StopIt · 8 May 2017 at 12:39PM

danblukk wrote: »

I think I tried for that before but because I have a student loan it takes my debts to above 20k.

Then you may need to look at a form of insolvency.

Get help from the CAB/A Debt charity ASAP.

Cancelling a Direct Debit is never a good idea. Always cancel any account via the proper method. In this case it looks like the straw that broke the camels back really.

danblukk · 8 May 2017 at 4:03PM

StopIt wrote: »

Then you may need to look at a form of insolvency.

Get help from the CAB/A Debt charity ASAP.

Cancelling a Direct Debit is never a good idea. Always cancel any account via the proper method. In this case it looks like the straw that broke the camels back really.

I will do thanks.

But thats what I'm saying, it actually says on there web site to cancel membership just cancel the DD so that is the correct method according to the website I've also stated this in the letter I sent them.

fatbelly · 11 May 2017 at 10:33AM

danblukk wrote: »

I think I tried for that before but because I have a student loan it takes my debts to above 20k.

Student loans (as long as it is a loan from the Student Loans Company) are excluded debts and do not contribute to the total debt for a DRO.

Neither are they written off by a DRO

StopIt · 11 May 2017 at 10:50AM

danblukk wrote: »

I will do thanks.

But thats what I'm saying, it actually says on there web site to cancel membership just cancel the DD so that is the correct method according to the website I've also stated this in the letter I sent them.

If they actually state that (Along with no other formal cancellation notice required) then they'll have no right to chase you per their own T&Cs.

Read the cancellation area of their website carefully. if it backs up your case send it to the DCA and tell them where to go.

virgogirl13 · 5 September 2017 at 7:24AM

Hi,
Have just read this after getting the same letter from fit4less. I however did cancel my membership through their membership page with 6 weeks notice and got a reference number for this, I have since had 2 more emails from them telling me that they havent heard from me even though they have replied to my further 2 emails! I'm now very angry and they will be getting a phone call from me today. Hope you get it sorted, :mad:

Fit4Less Harlands gym cancellation

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