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Direct Debit

kabanwar1999

A week ago I was charged £25 for not paying my direct debit to the gym. I was notified by the direct debit collectors and not by my bank. Secondly, I found out that my card does not have the ability to work on direct debit but was accepted when I registered it. Finally, I haven’t been attending the gym since my first payment.

I am not looking forward to paying my direct debit charge. What happens if I don’t pay the charge and just ignore it?

Reply 1

Foreverconfu

if you dont pay the charge for missing the payment your charge will probably double, thats what usually happens. Maybe get intouch with the bank or gym

Reply 2

kabanwar1999

Original post by Foreverconfu

if you dont pay the charge for missing the payment your charge will probably double, thats what usually happens. Maybe get intouch with the bank or gym

Ok but I’m not going to pay at all. Is there anything they can do legally?

Reply 3

Foreverconfu

Original post by kabanwar1999

Ok but I’m not going to pay at all. Is there anything they can do legally?

but if they have ur card details surley theyll just take the money out. but i dont know im not a lawyer

Reply 4

martin7

Original post by kabanwar1999

So, you presumably signed an agreement whereby you agreed to make a monthly payment to the gym in return for the gym providing you access to its facilities.

You gave them your bank details, but it turns out your account doesn't support direct debit. That's not the gym's fault; I'm pretty sure that you can't tell whether an account supports direct debit from the account number.

So, they tried to take the direct debit, and it failed. This may well have resulted in their bank charging them a fee, and they've got the admin overhead of notifying you that the payment failed and chasing you for it. Now you might argue that £25 is excessive, but this will have cost them some time and effort.

I don't know whether a bounced direct debit has any information attached such as "payment failed, don't try again, account doesn't support direct debit" or whether it's just "payment failed".

The problem is that the gym may well then try to take the payment again (or at the very least, take the next month's payment). That too will fail, and may give rise to another charge. And all the time, your debt for the gym fees is increasing.

So, you need to do something about this, before things start to escalate.

What can they do if you don't pay? They could take you to court, and then that's more fees for you. They could get a judgement against you, and that'll go on your credit record. And they could get debt collectors involved too.

I'd suggest you check the contract you signed to see what your options are for cancelling. Check to see if the contract mentions fees for failed direct debits -- if it doesn't mention that they can charge for this, you can probably argue that they should cancel the fee. But get the direct debit pointed to an account that supports direct debits!

Reply 5

jane96

Original post by Foreverconfu

if you dont pay the charge for missing the payment your charge will probably double, thats what usually happens. Maybe get intouch with the bank or gym

Exactly

Reply 6

jane96

Original post by kabanwar1999

Ok but I’m not going to pay at all. Is there anything they can do legally?

Ask them

Reply 7

oldsoulroaming

If you signed up for a membership and didn’t explicitly cancel it then you owe them the money. Trying to avoid payment without contacting the gym could potentially leave a nasty stain on your credit file (depending on your age). Get in touch with the gym and formally cancel with them then discuss the payment options. When you say your card doesn’t accept direct debit, what do you mean exactly?