Gym refusing to take DD on a different day

[cheaperthebetter]

Hi

Posting for traffic and this is not my direct debit but a friends and looking for advice;

So gym member ship comes out 1st of every month, when friend signed up this was ok.
Recently changed jobs and has changed several of her DD to her pay day date (let's say she gets paid 16th of every month)
So friend contacts gym asks to pay on 16th , Gym says no has to be the 1st , friend uses gym daily never missed payments .

Does she have a right to change the date?

Gym says they will try on 1st and then again on 15th, friend explains doesn't get paid till 16th, gym says they will terminate membership.

Can they do this?

Thanks for any advice

Can they do it? Whats in the contract she signed?

If it's in the contract then yes, my gym membership comes out on the 5th. Everyones does. I assume it's related to banking charges for business banking. Surely she could just leave the money in there between getting paid on the 16th and it coming out the 1st? Very few of our DDs come out on the same day. Husband paid monthly I'm paid weekly. We just keep track and don't spend money allocated for Direct Debits.

No the gym doesn’t have to change the payment date for her.

If she has the money on the 1st of the month, she’ll have it on the 16th surely?

That’s just called budgeting

When i worked at a leisure centre receptionist, we would only actually instruct DDs to be collected on 2 days for admin purposes. Perhaps they only do this on 1 day? It's pretty standard. Why can't she budget appropriately?

OMG just tell her to keep money from her pay on the 16th to cover the gym DD on the 1st.

Not exactly rocket science is it, keeping money to pay bills?

Can she open a new account for direct debits and transfer the correct amount each month. She won't accidentally spend that money and it won't matter what dates the DD's come out.

I genuinely don’t see what the problem is. Our mortgage is on the 16th and we get paid towards the end of the month. When we get paid, the mortgage money is just transferred into savings until the 15th when it goes back into the joint account. Easy. I doubt the gym is even that expensive.

Yes they can do that.

Is this "the yellow gym" by any chance?
If so then it's in the contract that payments come out on the first and cannot be changed. It also specifies a £40 admin fee for failed collection, so seriously, she needs to ring fence that money and make sure it's available (or arrange a small overdraft, if she can be sure she won't use it for other shopping).

If it's in the contract, then they can insist. Even if it's not in the contract I don't think they have to agree to change it.

She'll just have to change the way she budgets.

If she is really living hand-to-mouth to this extent, is private gym membership really such a good idea?

Maybe she could do a different, less expensive form of exercise?

To answer your question, yes they can insist on taking the DD on the date in the contract.

Can you imagine what would happen if everyone wanted a different day of the month? It would cost the gym a fortune in additional bank charges that would almost certainly be passed on to members in the form of higher fees.

SIBU

If she has never missed payments, why does she need the date of the DD changed?

Tell her to budget. If she gets it on the 16th, then she can keep it until the 1st. You keep a list of all direct debits and keep that ring fenced from your other spending. It's called being a grown up.

I work in a setting similar to this - we only have two dates a month we can instruct DDs to be taken - 1st and 15th. So yes, I'm sure they can do this.

Can't be pure gym - am pretty sure you can change DD date with them. Budget gyms are torture chambers but they do have their advantages.

She needs two accounts. Add up all the money due to come out for bills/DDs over the whole month and leave that amount in one account. Move everything else over to other account which you use for everyday spending. Don't touch the bills account again until the next month. In fact don't even take the card out.

Blimey, what a drama.
It would be better for her to budget rather than invest time in wrangling with various organisations to change DD date.

As PP said, it seems odd to have private gym membership if a 2 week gap between payday and DD is an issue.

Echo pp

If your friend can’t keep the dd available in her account for an extra 15/16 days then she probably shouldn’t be having a gym membership full stop

Cancel the membership. If she can't guarantee having money in the account on the first, by saving it from the 16th when she gets paid- is find a cheaper gym. Or cancel and rejoin on the date she wants to pay it.

If she gets paid on the 16th, surely she just keeps the money in her account until the 1st? It's hardly rocket science!

If she has the money on the 1st of the month, she’ll have it on the 16th surely?

That’s just called budgeting

This.

The gym will save money by processing the direct debits on the same day. They'll incur extra bank charges for putting DD's through on another day.
Your friend needs to budget differently.

It’s not just the extra bank charges though. It’s the time cost for someone to faff around with different dates to take DD payments. You and your friend are being unreasonable