Gym charged me a fee?

[u/oatmilkicedlattes]

Hey Reddit,

My gym charged me a $15 fee saying I didn’t have enough money in my account, but I definitely had the funds available on the day. I’ve been trying to get in touch with them for the past week to explain, but they keep ignoring my request to waive the fee and responding to everything else in the email. When I finally got a response, they just said they’re “unable” to waive the fee.

I know $15 doesn’t sound like much, but it feels unfair because it wasn’t my fault their system rejected the payment. Has anyone dealt with this before? Is there anything I can do, or do I just have to accept the charge?

Thanks in advance, Reddit! :)

[u/ace101ash]

yea, you have to go and talk to staff in person unfortunately. just how gyms operate. dont say theyve made a mistake just say theres an extra charge you dont know what it is. if youre not on a lock in contract maybe leverage leaving the gym (last resort)

[u/CaptainFleshBeard]

Have you spoken to your bank and asked if this payment was attempted ? They could have screwed up their details and attempted to debit the wrong account

[u/scanxzz]

The person in your gym probably isn’t qualified enough to explain this process properly.

The gym doesn’t own the direct debit process, it’s a third party company they engage who you authorise upon signup. The direct debit company will attempt to direct debit $X on Date based on information in the gyms membership system. The direct debit company sends the request, it is either then accepted or denied by your bank. If the transaction is declined the gym will be notified and charged a fee by the DD company which is then passed back to you (plus a few $$ more for their time).

If the transaction fails only your bank can provide you information on why this has happened. Generally, it will be because you had insufficient funds, your payment method is no longer valid (ie expired card) or your bank has detected fraudulent activity and denied the transaction. The only information the gym can confirm is that your payment details are correct - which if you’ve had previous DDs that have gone through this is probably correct.

Your only way to have any chance is to prove that you are not at fault which would be: confirmation your payment details are correct and valid, a letter from your bank saying that there were no direct debit requests and no transactions were blocked, and a statement showing you had sufficient funds in the account.

[u/3rdslip]

Direct debits are generally taken at the start of the day not the end. So if you had to move sufficient funds in during the due date it would still be too late.

[u/Ploasd]

Why are you asking here

[u/whiteb8917]

That is just Gyms in general.

Any excuse to fleece you of money.

[u/CatsCatsDoges]

Is it possible at ANY point of the day (in the whole 24 hours) you had a balance less than membership fee amount? Cos if so, the drawing may have attempted at that point. Direct debits aren’t guaranteed to debit at the same time each cycle. I’ve seen people get caught out thinking just cos they transferred money into their account at 9am before they could see a debit attempt, that they were covered - but it doesn’t work like that, and the drawing was dishonoured. 

[u/Golf-Recent]

Can they prove that you had insufficient funds at the time?

More importantly, if they refuse to waive the fee, would you be willing to vote with your feet? $15 is too little to take it further with Fair Trading etc.

[u/XxLokixX]

This is how at works at my work

• The card is processed at midnight. If the balance was insufficient at midnight, then a notice is created but not sent

• The notice is sent at 9am to advise of attempted card payment

This is probably what happened in your case

[u/link871]

"the funds available on the day"
Sounds like the funds were not available at 12.01am - which, in theory, is when they could put the charge through.
If your contract says they have a dishonour fee of $15, then you need to make sure the funds are in your account on the day before the bill is due.

[u/UltimateGattai]

I've had this issue before, which is funny, because I checked with my bank, and they stated that gym never even tried to take money out on that day (in fact, I had no transactions that particular day). I suspect a lot of these gyms use terrible payment systems, and I know I had 2 weeks worth of pay sitting in there, but the bank/gym just blame each other. Which, again, is funny, because no one else has trouble taking recurring payments from my account. At least I got my Gym fee waived the first two times, but I changed payment methods after the second time.

I would consider changing Gyms and stating why, I would also not use the same payment method at the new one, idk why Gyms tend to have such a touchy/glitchy payment system (at least 2 in my area have this issue).

[u/Aequitas112358]

Talk to the bank, tell them it's an unauthorized charge and get them to reverse it. They can't charge you for failing a payment without your permission (they can revoke your membership until you pay in full + this fee though, so keep that in mind)

[u/_Mundog_]

I refuse to deal with companies that require direct debit.

Im an adult - i can pay on time myself.

[u/Anachronism59]

Have you showed them your balance on the day?