Safe method of paying for a Gym Membership?
"Shady isn't quite the right word.  They know that most of their customers are going to quit soon after they begin -- as in ""before the end of January"" -- so they lock you in while you're motivated.  And of course they're going to make it difficult for you to quit. No choice but to read their contract, understand it completely, follow their rules, and meet their deadlines.  There's lots of freedom for them and lots of restrictions for you.  It's like this if you're not the one writing up the contract.   However ... do you have a YMCA around?  Our YMCA has an initiation fee, but beyond that it's month to month.  Most flexible gym membership I've heard of.  If you lapse for too long they'll make you pay another initiation fee to rejoin, but there's no penalty for canceling.  Not all Y's are like that, but check around to see." "I've worked in gyms for 9 years. Here's a few things I've seen: 1)Contracts aren't necessarily a terrible thing if you know that you are going to stay for a while, just know the terms you're signing up for.  2)Be aggressive and relentless with the membership salesman, don't be afraid to put your own price out there and if you don't get it walk away. Don't want the super high sign-up fee, say you wont join unless that is gone or lower. (often these sign-up fees are commissions for the salesman, one time i had a guy slip me a $100 under the table to drop the sign-up fee and monthly rate saving him at least $500 a year) 3)Pick newer gyms because they will be more in a need of new memberships thus giving in to lower prices.  4)If you don't want to sign a contract just say so, you'd be amazed how often someone gets out of signing a contract just because they asked and threatened not to join because of it.  5)Be aware of annual fees, a trend in the industry now is to have a super low membership dues but charge the member an annual ""gym improvement"" or ""rate guarantee fee"". 6)Join with a buddy, ask for a buddy discount if you sign-up at the same time. 7)Finally consider why you are joining a gym, I've seen it so often that someone joins a gym and then gets frustrated because they never use it because they weren't getting the results you wanted. Maybe your better off spending a little more and going to a private personal training studio or a group exercise studio. Independent bootcamps are a hot now.  Ultimately it's about you getting what you want out of it, so do what is going to give you the best chance to get the results you want." I've often encountered the practices you describe in the Netherlands too. This is how I deal with it. Avoid gyms with aggressive sales tactics My solution is to only sign up for a gym that does not seem to have one-on-one sales personnel and aggressive sales tactics, and even then to read the terms and conditions thoroughly. I prefer to pay them in monthly terms that I myself initiate, instead of allowing them to charge my account when they please. [1]  Avoid gyms that lack respect for their members Maybe you've struggled with the choice for a gym, because one of those 'evil' gyms is very close to home and has really excellent facilities. You may be tempted to ask for a one-off contract without the shady wording, but I advise against this.  Think about it this way: Even though regular T&C would not apply, the spirit with which they were drawn up lives on among gym personnel/management. They're simply not inclined to act in your best interest, so it's still possible to run into problems when ending your membership. In my opinion, it's better to completely avoid such places because they are not worthy of your trust. Of course this advice goes beyond gym memberships and is applicable to life in general. Hope this helps. [1] Credit Cards aren't very popular in the Netherlands, but we have a charging mechanism called 'automatic collection' which allows for arbitrary merchant-initiated charges. New York state actually has laws protecting gym members from predatory gym membership pricing.  Your state may also have laws like that as well. Quite often the local university has decent gym facilities with super-competitive rates, even if you are not a student there, and you can usually join for a single term and pay by cash. They lack some of the fancier things and might be not as shiny, but I want my membership fees to pay for equipment, not interior design. "I once was reviewing one of those contracts with plenty of bad clauses in it, sitting across from the salesman whose commission depending on me signing it.  I started crossing out all the bad clauses, initialed them and said I would sign it if he'd initial the changes as well.  Oh, and there was one clause that said something like ""THIS CONTRACT MAY NOT BE MODIFIED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT...""  Of course, I crossed it out as well.  I signed, he signed.  Everyone was happy.  Fortunately I never had to deal with any of the issues, but what's the worse they could do?" The safest way is to not sign contracts with terms that are onerous to you.
If you're determined to save money, find ways to integrate exercise into your daily routine and don't join a gym at all. This makes it more likely you'll keep it up if it is a natural part of your day. You could set aside half the money you would spend on the gym towards some of the options below. I know it's not always practical, especially in the winter, but here are a few things you could do.  One of the other answers makes a good point. Gym membership can be cost effective if you go regularly, but don't kid yourself that you'll suddenly go 5 times a week every week if you've not done much regular exercise.  If you are determined to join a gym, here are a few other things to consider. If this chargeback failed then would it negatively affect my credit score? A credit score is a measure of how dependable of a borrower you are. Requesting a refund for not receiving goods not delivered as promised, whether it is successful or it fails, should not impact your credit score since it has no implications on the likelihood that you will pay back debts. The last time I used that gym was the 13th January 2017, and I rejoined on the 20th December, so I have used it for less than a month. Therefore I do not think I should have to pay for two months Keep in mind that you purchased a membership to the gym. Whether or not you actually use the gym you are liable to pay for every month that you retain the membership. Although it probably won't hurt to try to get a refund for the period where you didn't take advantage of your gym membership, you weren't actually charged for a service that you never received (like in the last case where they charged you after you cancelled your membership). so you and your friend are trying to make a federal case over the fact that he's going to have to pay $1-3 in a month's time?   [they had this rather popular series of self-help books a while back.](http://www.amazon.com/Sweat-Small-Stuff---small-Series/dp/0786881852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1339809567&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=don%27t+sweat+the+small+stuff) perhaps the two of you should explore it. Yes, it is safe, we have been doing it for years. We prefer our tenants to make their rent payments in this manner. In fact, we prefer that they set up an automatic payment for the rent, either through their online banking or through their bank directly. Apart from getting your rent on time, this method also has the added benefit of both parties having their own records of rent payments through their bank statements, in case there is a dispute about the rent sometime down the track. Having a separate bank account just for the rent does make sense as well, it makes it easier for you to check if rent has come in, it makes it easier if you need to compare your statement without having to highlight all the rent payments amongst all other payments (you might not want to show your other incomes and spending habits to others), and you can withdraw the rents to your other account (which might offer higher interest) after it has come in, leaving a small balance most of the time in your rent account. You're knowingly providing a payment method which has insufficient funds to meet the terms of the contract, because you are too lazy to comply with the contract. That's unethical and fraudulent behavior. Will you get in trouble? I don't know. I'd suggest getting acquainted with an electronic calendar that can remind you to do things. I've been using online billpay for years, at three different banks.  Two were local (a bank and a credit union), and the other is ING Direct.  I haven't had any problems with any of them that weren't self-inflicted (forgetting to enter the bill).  The credit union's system is pretty clunky, but the other two are fine.  One thing to make sure of is to leave enough time for the bill to arrive, just like you would do if mailing a check.  Just have the bill sent a week before its due, and you should be fine.  I usually do this soon after I get the bill, so I don't forget about it.  ING will actually receive bills from some companies automatically, if you wish.  So all you need to do is go online and click pay, and it will know when the due date is and the amount to pay.  For bills that have the same amount each month (mortgage, insurance premiums, etc.), you can set it up to pay automatically each month so you don't have to do anything. Its a bit of a hassle moving banks, and reentering the account numbers, addresses, etc.  Stopping a bill is as easy as clinking delete in the online system.  My current setup is to have all my bills paid through ING, and my paycheck direct deposited.  I can transfer money to/from my local bank in a couple of days if I have checks to deposit, or to use the local ATM.   I short, I would never go back to writing paper checks. "If you do it, be sure to read what you sign. They'll sign you up on some type of ""credit insurance"" and not tell you about it. It costs like $10 a month. If you don't sign up for that, you should be fine. I bought my HDTV this way, though I wish I would have saved and paid up front. I'm moving more towards the ""cash only"" mindset." First thing that popped into my head was tanning salons.  You can be a member at differing levels of service (for different qualities of tanning beds) and you can also pay a one-time fee at an inflated price.  Basically, for the price of three (services) you could have unlimited access (to beds of the same type) by paying up front for a month.  All memberships in this arena come with pages of legal contract to sign, so having training in place for the documentation of this is important.  Enrolling individuals during peak business hours can be labor intensive, so prices insentivize individuals to 1) return hassle-free for more services and 2) pay all at once for said services. "Understand that buying a Starbucks gift card at the grocery store to receive 6% back on your coffee rather than 6% back on your groceries is an exploit of a flaw in the benefits program, not a feature.  It's definitely not a blanket yes or no answer, the only way to find out is to try. Separately, I don't know why you would find this ""concerning.""  This will vary greatly between merchants and cards.  There will always be new points churning exploits, they don't last forever and you can't expect every customer service rep to be well versed in methods employed to juice cardmember programs. Hell, a number of years ago one person figured out that he could buy rolls of $1 coins from the US treasury with free shipping and no additional fees.  This guy was literally buying thousands of dollars of cash each month to deposit and pay his credit card bill; completely against the terms of the treasury program for distributing the $1 coins.  A number of people had their cards and points/cash back revoked for that one." "I would suggest having your money auto-deposited into a savings account. Then use cash weekly to pay for everything you purchase. Forget the ATM card, because you can burn through your whole paycheck and then run out. Set a certain budget (say $200 per week, just making up a number), and that's all you get. Withdraw $200 from the bank / ATM, and then walk away. No buying online (because it isn't restricted), no buying on a card. All expenses (beyond utilities) comes out of that cash. When you want to spend more, you need to wait until your next cash ""paycheck"". If you want to spend more (on whatever you end up splurging on), you will need to cut back in other areas (cheaper food, etc). As others have mentioned, freeze that ATM card, and don't use it at all." So far I am doing mint.com for a few minutes a couple of times a week, despite my security concerns, and that's working fairly well as practice until my job starts.  I'm hoping to get my bank to allow up to date transaction download, and then I'm considering using YNAB once I start my job.  I will update this as I go along. Atm machine and my Credit Union account. Low fees (often zero, if the machine is on any of the same networks) and decent exchange rate, and no need to carry cash or traveler's checks to be exchanged. Alternatively, pay by credit card, though there is a foreign transaction fee on that. Ask your bank or credit union. Mine will let me issue recurring payments to anyone, electronically if they can, if not a check gets mailed and (I presume) I get billed for the postage. "Under the assumption you're not looking for a particular credit union/bank (since that'll make this question off topic), you can apply for a secure credit card. That's where you essentially put up a sum of money as collateral. That would be the safe way for someone with ""little or no credit history"" and wants to build credit. Any big bank (Wells Fargo, Chase, etc.) should be able to do that for you. You can also do that online provided you have the means to transfer money into the account." Honestly, having seen their trial and cancelation process, it seems they're betting that the Planet Fitness model will work for cinema tickets. It's cheap enough that it seems like a great deal, but in practice most people won't even see a movie a month and won't bother to cancel.   Every time I've been about to sign up for a subscription cinema ticket, I've challenged myself to actually go to the cinema at least twice a month for 3 months. I always drop off!