Stupid question regarding joining fee

MistyCheese

When you pay your joining fee to a gym, say €100, and the monthly fee is €80, do you need to give them €180 upfront to start? Or do you give them the €100 upfront and the €80 comes out of your account one month later?

I have an appointment to view a gym today after work and I really want to know because if they think I'm a complete novice, they could try to pull a fast one.

This is the first time I've ever tried a "pay-monthly" gym, any other gym I've ever been to I've paid for an annual subscription.

arybvtcw0eolkf

MistyCheese wrote: »

When you pay your joining fee to a gym, say €100, and the monthly fee is €80, do you need to give them €180 upfront to start? Or do you give them the €100 upfront and the €80 comes out of your account one month later?

I have an appointment to view a gym today after work and I really want to know because if they think I'm a complete novice, they could try to pull a fast one.

This is the first time I've ever tried a "pay-monthly" gym, any other gym I've ever been to I've paid for an annual subscription.

Yes you need to give them your €100 plus your €80.

But look around your area and see if there's any gym's without a joining fee and argue that with them.

Joining fee's are bollox. Tell them your interested in joining and training there but your not interested in their joining fee.

Joining fee's are my number one grip about gym membership.

dave80

depends on the gym really, you normally pay the joining fee and give them your bank details, fee would then come out a few days later

MistyCheese

Yeah, that's what I thought. Then my hubby came along and said they'd take the €80 a month after the joining fee. Damn! He had me thinking I had extra money. Thanks for the replies.

amazingemmet

Haggle with them and most gyms will wave the fee.

MistyCheese

Wow. Emmet, I'd love to try that but I don't have the confidence, I know I don't. Even if it is worth €100...

I can just see someone asking me "Oh, are you not willing to put in the effort? €100 isn't that much compared to..." yadda, yadda, yadda.

amazingemmet

MistyCheese wrote: »

Wow. Emmet, I'd love to try that but I don't have the confidence, I know I don't. Even if it is worth €100...

I can just see someone asking me "Oh, are you not willing to put in the effort? €100 isn't that much compared to..." yadda, yadda, yadda.

The only way you gain confidence in these matters is by pushing yourself outside your safety zones. Just do it the worse that can happen is they won't wave it the best that might happen is you save 100yoyo's. Its win win, its not like they're gonna stop you joining for trying to bargain.

Take the step outside your comfort zone today and see what happens. There's nothing to lose and so much to gain.

EileenG

Even worse, most gyms that quote the price by the month expect you to join for at least 6 months and usually a year. You are not likely to get out with just paying 180.

Haggling is easy. When they tell you how much they expect you to pay, just look sorrowful and say "What a pity. I do like this gym, but Gym X near my house is only charging Y amount and no joining fee. I'm afraid I'll have to go with them."

To my mind, any gym that charges a joining fee is crap. I've never seen a good gym that does this. And if those amounts are serious (80 euro a month), you are being totally ripped off.

javaboy

Joining Fees=New Year's Resolution Tax.

When bargaining to get the joining fee waived, assure them you're going to be going regularly and not lose interest after a few months. That's one of the main reason for joining fees. They want to guarantee a good chunk of change from you even if they never see you there again.

EileenG

No, don't do that. Gyms regularly overbook themselves, assuming that most people will drop out or only visit occasionally. That's why they hate hardcore bodybuiulders, they actually use the place regularly. The joining fee is supposed to cover administration and paper work. It's a con. Good gyms don't do it.

In a smaller gym, you might be able to negociate a discount by promising not to use the sunbeds or something like that.

I often turn up with cash in hand, and say I'd like to join a gym today, this is how much money I have to spend on it, what can you do for me?

MistyCheese

Well, I got the joining fee doen to €70 and the price per month is €60 if I go off-peak times. i was planning to go in the mornings anyway, get it all over with early and all. But it's nice to know that if that idea fails you could go after work instead. I'm a bit unsure now, when I went to look around the guy was very friendly and told me about all the plans they will do up for me but when I went for the trial the guy who was there (diff guy) couldn't really be bothered. I know it's a Monday morning but still, you're at work, you're getting paid for it.

And then I rang later to try and book an induction/assesment programme, trying to get my workout plan started so I can go off and follow it but the girl who answered the phone was a bit rude. I haven't handed over any money yet and apparently I'll have to go that before they make an appointment to sort out a programme for me. Well ,fair enough but I'm not paying the monthly fee untill I get that. I'm not paying them and then being left for a week til they decide to fit me in, (didn't realise this was such a busy time for gyms), then get charged three weeks after being able to get stuck in.

I guess I'm having second thoughts. If they're already not bothered and rude before I even join what'll it be like trying to tie them down for the monthly assesments?

EileenG

What gym is it? And whereabouts are you? It sounds to me as if you get a warning not to hand over any money. That lot still adds up to 790 euro for a gym that you can only use in the morning, and where they can't be bothered assessing you or helping you. For that money, you could join TWO good gyms and still have change left over.

Honestly, that is appalling service, and if they are this bad now, because you've handed over money, what do you think they will be like when you've paid up?

If you are in Dublin, I could probably recommend a couple of gyms that are cheaper and would suit you better.

rubadub

If I was going to join a gym I would want to be able to pay for 1months membership. If I liked it then I would pay the years sub for the remaining 11 months minus my original months fees.

e.g. a month sub is €100. A year's sub is €600. So I join and pay 100, and then pay 500 for the remaining 11 months.

If gym was not willing to do this then they obviously have something to hide, since they would lose no money in the deal.

I know a gym near me offers discounts for couples, I expect if you just went up and asked you would get the same deal. Just like electronics places with "trade-ins" usually give you the cash off with nothing to trade-in.

mikemac

javaboy wrote: »

Jing fee waived, assure them you're going to be going regularly and not lose interest after a few months. That's one of the main reason for joining fees. They want to guarantee a good chunk of change from you even if they never see you there again.

No,no,no!
Gyms don't want their members to show up.
They massivly oversell the capacity of the gym and if a good percentage ever showed up at once (like January ) the place would be swamped and queues everywhere.

Ok, gyms don't want their place empty every day but they just loooooove members who pay direct debit and never show up!

javaboy

micmclo wrote: »

No,no,no!
Gyms don't want their members to show up.
They massivly oversell the capacity of the gym and if a good percentage ever showed up at once (like January ) the place would be swamped and queues everywhere.

Ok, gyms don't want their place empty every day but they just loooooove members who pay direct debit and never show up!

I know I know. What I was suggesting was that the OP guarantees the gym that they'll get their money off them in the long term. I know gyms oversell massively and they would prefer people not to show up, but it probably wouldn't stop them selling the membership if they thought you were going to show up regularly.

Anyway the gym can charge what it wants. If they're not willing to waive the fee, you can just go elsewhere.

RacoonQueen

Thats one hell of an expensive gym. :eek: