Thinking about getting in shape for the summer? Yeah, me too. And while you may be focused on finding the perfect gym, with great equipment and specific classes, you’ll want to give the same effort to reading – and understanding – your contract. Trust us, it’s worth it. Before you sign that fitness contract, stop and think about these three things.
- Is it really a free trial offer? Some gyms offer intro or trial memberships. Find out if it is a true free-trial membership that doesn’t have financial obligations at the end, or if you’re actually entering into a contract.
- How long is the contract? If you’re going away for school, think about how long your gym membership lasts – and how long you’ll be in town. Ask if you can suspend your membership for a period of time if you leave town. (Hint: if you are, ask about any associated costs.)
- Know when you can cancel. In BC, you can cancel your gym membership for any reason within 10 days of receiving your contract, or in certain circumstances (like an injury or moving more than 30km away).
When you purchase a gym membership, you are entering a type of contract called a continuing services contract. These contracts usually also apply to dance lessons, personal training, weight loss programs or self-defence classes. At Consumer Protection BC, we are responsible for regulating specific parts of these contracts – including consumer cancellation rights and what information must be in the contract. If you are thinking of cancelling your gym membership, we have more information about gym contracts on our website.
We hope this blog post can assist you in making an informed decision!
ADDITIONAL READING:
If you have a gym membership, check out this blog
Work out the details of your gym contract before signing!
What would you do? A guide to being a savvy consumer: gym memberships
When you click on the link for more information about gym memberships, it takes you to another page: on THAT page, non of the links regarding the consumer protection act work Not only that, but when you search for those topics in Google, the BC Laws links are all broken.
Please provide a WORKING link.
Thank you
Hi Kim, we totally understand your frustration but it seems that the BC Laws website is down at the moment. This should be temporary – as of Sept 17, 1:30 PST the BC Laws site is running from an archived version but they are working to restore the site.