• Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    How do gym memberships work in america? You have to subscribe with a credit card? because everywhere else you pay for a month/year upfront and if you stop going that’s on you.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Depends on the gym. Planet Fitness (a huge chain with gyms literally fucking everywhere) requires checking account info (account number and bank routing number) and they automatically deduct the monthly amount and the annual fee. The advantage of this (compared to credit card info) is that a customer can’t do a chargeback through the credit card company and the checking account info never expires. PF’s basic business model is getting people to sign up for a small monthly fee (either $15 or $25) and then either forget about it or not care enough to bother canceling. They certainly don’t want people showing up every day - apparently the average PF franchise has about 6000 members, which would be utterly unworkable if they all actually used the gym. I’ve been going to PF for more than 15 years on a daily basis and sometimes I lose my mind and start thinking I’m actually a valued customer, when in reality I’m surprised I haven’t been banned.

      • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        You see, here in Europe(at least in my country) we have a system where you can allow certain companies e.g. your mobile provider to just take the monthly amount from your account, without you having to bother with setting up recurring payments or worse, paying it manually, but it’s fully under your control, you set the upper limit and you can cancel it from your side anytime.