Hello all.

I have received a £12 'administration fee' from Harlands.

This occurred when the £16.99 fee direct debit to my gym did not go through as I had no money in the account at the time.

I am not under any kind of contract with my gym

- I have not agreed to pay them for x months of membership or anything like that.

I can cancel the membership at any time.

Here is a copy of the email received from Harlands:

Harlands administer the collection of all payments due under your agreement with The Gym Group. Your bank have advised us that your April instalment has been returned unpaid "refer to payer" as there were insufficient funds in the account to pay the amount due.

We will therefore debit your account on 28 APR 17 for the total amount of £28.99 made up as follows:

Instalment Amount £16.99

Administration Fee £12.00

Total Due £28.99

Please note that the submission for this will be made two working days prior to 28 APR 17 and if this date is not convenient, please contact us on the HARLANDS HELPLINE - 0330 998 6382.

The telephone lines are open 8.00am to 8.00pm Monday to Friday.

Once the submission has been made the debiting of your account cannot be stopped.

We trust you find this in order and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely

Harlands

Is there anyway I can avoid paying this fee?

cancel your DD

they are unlawful

Hi Seal and welcome to CAG

This is very interesting as Harlands have always charged £25 admin fees up until now. Perhaps they've lowered the fees to the same amount that credit cards charge in an attempt to make the admin fee justifiable.

If you were on a rolling monthly agreement, you still had to give the gym or Harlands a month's notice. So you should probably have told them you wanted to leave and paid them one final fee before cancelling the DD mandate.

Do you have any T&C's from when you joined. If so, please confirm exactly what is said about Harlands admin fee if you fail to pay on time as required.

Ignore demands from Harlands/CRS for now.

I have to say, paying just £12 plus the missed final fee is a bargain, compared to the months of demands from Harlands/CRS.

Hi Seal and welcome to CAG

 

This is very interesting as Harlands have always charged £25 admin fees up until now. Perhaps they've lowered the fees to the same amount that credit cards charge in an attempt to make the admin fee justifiable.

 

If you were on a rolling monthly agreement, you still had to give the gym or Harlands a month's notice. So you should probably have told them you wanted to leave and paid them one final fee before cancelling the DD mandate.

 

Do you have any T&C's from when you joined. If so, please confirm exactly what is said about Harlands admin fee if you fail to pay on time as required.

 

Ignore demands from Harlands/CRS for now.

 

I have to say, paying just £12 plus the missed final fee is a bargain, compared to the months of demands from Harlands/CRS.

 

Hi slick thank you for welcoming me.

The fee wasn't because I have left the gym - I have not and don't plan to. The fee was incurred as the usual monthly direct debit didn't go through as my bank account had no money in it. It does now, and they want to take out what I owe them plus the admin fee. THere is no way I am paying that fee if there is anyway not to. As I am new here I don't know the normal procedure for this kind of thing. Any ideas?

Hi Seal and sorry I missed the crux of your post. I was in a hurry.

You are usually either in a 6 or 12 month agreement; or a rolling monthly agreement.

If it's the latter, you normally DO have to pay 1 final fee after giving notice to cancel - and then you can cancel the DD mandate. Please see the guide here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?452671-Cancelling-your-Gym-Agreement-Get-it-right-!(1-Viewing)-nbsp

Turning more specifically to your case, we always tell folk to cancel the DD immediately if Harlands threaten to take an admin fee on top of the unpaid fee. Cancel the DD now.

You can then write to the gym offering to pay the missed fee but NOT Harlands admin fee.

Please confirm :-

1. What gym is this about.

2. Have you had any T&C's given to you; or maybe you agreed to them on a gym's computer system; or on the web. If so, please check and see what is said about any admin fee Harlands may charge.

My gym is called 'the gym'. Link here: www[DOT]thegymgroup[DOT]com. Is there a legal template letter I should send my gym? I don't remember there being a contract of any kind. In fact if you follow the link I've provvided their main page explicitly states NO CONTRACT

Hi Seal,

Aha, now it's becoming clearer !

I've had a skim through the gym's FAQ's and can't see mention of a failed DD pay't but I suspect Harlands like to charge a (smaller than normal) fee when A DD fails.

If you want to stay a member, call the gym as per their FAQ's to discuss it - How can I make a payment/reinstate my membership? - it gives a number to call.

Maybe tell the gym you want to remain a member but you had no idea Harlands would try to charge a PENALTY fee for the failed DD.

If they insist you have to deal with Harlands direct, or insist you have to pay the penalty, you may have no option but to let the m/ship lapse and cancel the DD.

Let us know and we'll take it from there. There's no legal template letter to send. In fact, quite often the best action is to do nothing and ignore Harlands demands.