Direct Debit – can they do this?

Hi

The gym I was a member of (LA Fitness) which I used almost exclusively for swimming closed following a buy out 3 months ago. The final Direct Debit payment was pro-rata for the number of days the gym was open in that month. The gym was going to be re-opening as a Purgym, with no swimming pool. As I use the gym for swimming, I decided I wouldn’t be joining, and assumed that would be the end of it.

A few days ago I started getting “your new gym is opening soon” emails, so sent them an email saying I did not want to join and have had no response.

Today, the new gym has opened, and the monthly fee has been deducted from my account. My question is, Can Puregym, use a direct debit mandate that was in place with LA fitness to take my money? I paid LA fitness £xx a month on the 1st of every month, yet today that mandate has been used to pay a different company, a different amount, on a different date. Is this legal?

I have mailed puregym again, but just wondered if I had any protection under the Direct Debit scheme.

**** em; tell your bank; they’ll get the money back for you with minimal fuss.

This happened when Pure Gym purchased my (megagym) too. It just carried on going under the new name. Probably some legal clause in there somewhere. Just give them your 30 days notice and cancel or tell the bank you didn’t authorise Pure Gym and see if they can get it back.

Yep. Tell your bank today, and they’ll bounce the payment for you (you did say the payment was taken today…?). Make sure the DD Is cancelled.

Let ’em sing for it

Well I assume they notified you of the new amount and date in the emails (perhaps also a letter?) You should certainly cancel the DD immediately *through your bank* to make sure they don’t do it again, and I expect you’ll be able to get a refund.

Call your bank and explain what has happened – I don’t think you’ll have any problem getting the DD refunded. Make sure you get them to cancel it too.

I think with most banks you can just cancel a DD or standing order through your internet banking service. I know you certainly can with HSBC.

I’d be asking the gym to refund it in the first instance. Just cancelling DDs can be a bad idea from a credit rating perspective.

My question is, Can Puregym, use a direct debit mandate that was in place with LA fitness to take my money?

Evidently they can, as it’s what they’ve done. Whether they were entitled to do so is another matter and one you could argue.

Is this legal?

Don’t know, not a lawyer.

just wondered if I had any protection under the Direct Debit scheme.

Absolutely. Call your bank and they’ll reverse it, as they have to under the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee. You may then be pursued by the company for the money, but I can’t imagine they’d get very far.

Just cancelling DDs can be a bad idea from a credit rating perspective.

Maybe in the case of a financial institution, but there’s no credit relationship in this case surely? I’d have thought there’d only be an issue if the new company took the OP to court, won, got a CCJ etc. That’s a long way off.

Yeah, fair point.

I’m amazed they can do this. A Direct Debit Instruction (not a mandate!) is an instruction to your bank to allow a particular organisation to take money from your account. It shouldn’t be possible for another business to use the same instruction. I’d be having a harsh word with my bank if they allowed this!

there’s no credit relationship in this case surely?

There was a time when gym contracts did often involve credit agreements if you wanted to pay monthly. I suspect that’s not the case here though, although if it is it would explain how someone managed to use the same DD instruction.

A search through the emails shows they did tell me about it on a mail I must have missed on the 1st.

I have moved house since I signed up for LA Fitness, so yes, maybe they have been posting things to my old address as well.

Think I am prepared to take the hit and put it down to experience, I’ve asked them for a refund rather then going to my bank more in hope than expectation, but will go to the bank and cancel the DD so I don’t get hit with another one next month.

I’d be asking the gym to refund it in the first instance. Just cancelling DDs can be a bad idea from a credit rating perspective.

Might have to look that one up, changed my life insurance recently and the advice of the old company was to cancel the DD and it would all sort itself out.

Changing car finance too, I was advised to cancel the DD to stop the next payment going out after paying off the old finance as part of a swap.

Never looked at credit rating to see if it had an effect. Curious now.

Your fault I’d say for not cancelling the DD.

I doubt credit rating companies care about Pure Gym direct debts! 😆

btw Is a £10/20 quid debit really enough to be bothering your arse about? 😆 just cancel it and put it down to experience. (Edit, just noticed you’ve taken the sensible approach! 😀 )

btw Is a £10/20 quid debit really enough to be bothering your arse about?

It’s worth phoning the bank up for though; they’ll get you your money back, surely?

It’s not like you’ve used the service they’ve charged you for.

davidtaylforth – Member
btw Is a £10/20 quid debit really enough to be bothering your arse about?
It’s worth phoning the bank up for though; they’ll get you your money back, surely?

I don’t really see why they would it’s a direct debit you’ve signed up to. I’d say any refund is at the behest of Pure Gym.

I don’t really see why they would it’s a direct debit you’ve signed up to. I’d say any refund is at the behest of Pure Gym.

Direct Debit Guarantee is actually quite weighted in the customer’s favour. So they might well refund it & sort it out later…

seosamh77 – Member
Your fault I’d say for not cancelling the DD.

I doubt credit rating companies care about Pure Gym direct debts!

POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

You would hope,but two months of talk talk after I cancelled it,stopped the DD and moved nearly stopped me getting a mortgage.

PureGym won’t chase you for money. If you cancel your DD they just take that as you cancelling your membership. They don’t have set term contracts.

Can happen if your membership is with “XYZ Company” and the fact that the gym was bought out doesn’t mean its not still XYZ Company who are operating it.
Anything that uses the Direct Debit scheme can be put on to your credit record as it it technically credit and they can put late payment markers on there, default notices, etc.
If they do – they will sit there for up to 6yrs before they are either intentionally removed or drop off on the time barred rule.

I will see what they come back with, and agree that its not worth too much hassle for the sake of £35, but at the same time it is definitely worth an email.

Yip – get in touch with the bank tell them you want a refund under the direct debit guarantee. Tell PureGym to bolt. £35 is an awfully expensive rate for a PureGym – my local one is £10/month.

In principal, you can transfer a DD from one company to another. In practice, it sounds like they didn’t do it right here.

It’s an open and shut direct debit guarantee job, this.

No they can’t and they shouldn’t legally have got your details. Contact your bank, you will get your cash back and there should be an investigation by the regulaters(or whom ever) as to how this happend.

Just because DD is in the consumers favour, doesn’t mean that you won’t get your credit rating trashed. I’ve been through this with the scumbags at Virgin Media. Despite them taking money they shouldn’t have for months after I’d left them, and them suggesting I pull the direct debits to recover the money they owed they still handed a ‘debt’ to an agency who tried to put a default on my credit record.

Not a nice experience, and took a long time to sort out. You hold very few cards if you need to get stuff like this resolved, so despite the fact it’s unfair, I’d tread very carefully. It’s very easy for organisations to trash your credit rating, but very hard for you to get it straightened out.

I would be wary of anyone here saying “they can’t do that!”. There are all sorts of complex regulatory controls around what can be done with DDs, but it is possible for companies to make changes to the original DD conditions you sign up to, as long as they satisfy regs and are treating customers fairly. Indeed, in some cases, it might be seen as disadvantaging a customer if the DD was automatically cancelled and the service was terminated, instead of keeping it going.
If they emailed you to inform you of a change in conditions, it sounds like they are doing things by the book.

OP, this isn’t the one in Northwich is it?
I’ve a feeling the same thing happened to my Mrs..