Gym Fees

[ChrissieS79]

I joined my local big chain gym 4 years ago paying monthly by direct debit (£21/mo) and have been using it 3 or so times ever since. Me and Dh have a separate bills account out of which all our direct debit and standing orders come from and monthly we must make 15-20 regular payments for all sorts of stuff.

I came home yesterday to a very snooty/aggressive letter from the gym threatening debt collectors because somehow the direct debit had been cancelled nearly 2 yrs ago (not by me though) and saying I was owe them £462 to be paid within the next 28 days.

I have an members card which is swiped to get in so don't really understand how it was still active if I wasn't paying. I've checked the bank and they're right though and payments haven't come out since summer 2014 but i just didn't notice it since the account ticks along.with no real effort on our part.

What to do? I'm obviously not happy about shelling out nearly £500 in one go. Should I take a stand and tell them that I'm not paying?

You should pay, but contact them and ask if you can pay over a couple of months if it's too big a hit at once. I'd also advise keeping a closer tab on what's going on with your account. You could have Direct Debits going out that should have been canceled a while ago.

This happened to me when Sky news accidentally paid £3000 into my account in drinks and drabs over a year - I didn't notice because at the time I had some massive changes in circumstances (victim of crime) and didn't notice. I finally did notice and called them and they said it was some mistake to do with my address after I did them a favour and appeared as a guest and they were paying my expenses. That was in 2011 and I'm paying them £40 a month for 76 months....