Private health clubs such as Holmes Place and LA Fitness tend to lock members into contracts of up to 12 months, forcing them to pay monthly subscriptions for the term even if they never set foot in the gym again.
This ploy costs consumers about £200m every year in wasted subscriptions, according to Sainsbury’s Bank.
While some private health clubs allow people to turn up and use their facilities even if they are not members, the cost tends to be prohibitively expensive to encourage you to take out a contract.
For example, Fitness First, the biggest health-club chain in Britain with 149 outlets, would charge up to £20 if you walked in off the street unaccompanied by an existing member.
Alternatively, it offers membership for an average of £40 a month. So anyone who used the gym more than twice a month would be better off with membership.
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If you are an infrequent gym user who would prefer to pay as you go, you are probably better off using your local-authority leisure centre. There, a swim might set you back only £3, while a session in the gym might cost £4 or £5.
More than 7m Britons already belong to a gym and at this time of year fitness clubs fall over themselves to sign up recruits with special offers.
One gym chain, Holmes Place, will waive its joining fee, usually between £29 and £59, for anyone who signs up in January. However, new members are committed to a 12-month contract that can be cancelled only in exceptional circumstances: if they break a leg and are unable to exercise, for example.
So you must pay the monthly subscription, which can range from £43 to £116 depending on the club, for the full year even if your good intentions have evaporated by Easter — a total cost of £516 to £1,392.
Holmes Place argues that it guarantees to give members their money back if they are not happy after 12 weeks, but only if they have met stringent conditions, such as attending an induction within seven days of joining and making at least 24 visits in the first 12 weeks.
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Teresa Perchard of Citizens Advice said: “Gym credit deals often overstep the mark. We see evidence of gyms ripping people off by failing to point out exactly what they are signing for. People mistakenly think they are setting up a direct debit to pay their fees ‘as they go’. It is only when they try to end the contract that they realise they have signed a credit agreement that they cannot get out of for a long time. This can end up costing them a great deal of money for a membership they no longer want.”
The Office of Fair Trading became so worried about unfair contracts that it investigated the fitness industry in 2002 and cleaned up some of the worst practices. Many gyms now offer shorter contracts for those who fear their fitness drive will not last the year, but they may cost more. For example, LA Fitness might charge £55 a month for a six-month contract, compared with £40 for the full year.
Cannons allows you to cancel a 12-month contract after two months as long as you give one month’s written notice, while Fitness First requires you to be a member for three months before you can cancel.
You can avoid contracts altogether if you sign up to a local-authority gym rather than a private club. Harpers Fitness, which runs the gym and fitness suites in 100 local-authority leisure centres, allows you to cancel your monthly membership subscription at any time with one month’s notice.
However, gym contracts can still trap the unwary, so it pays to read the small print.
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Cannons is offering a free month’s subscription if you pay a full year’s membership upfront. But if you cancel the contract, it will not refund the money. It said: “We make it very clear when people sign up that there will be no refund.”
An easy way to cut costs is to use the gym outside peak hours.
Holmes Place charges £116 a month to use its Privilege health clubs in peak hours, but £91 at other times. And if you join with someone who shares your address — your spouse or housemate — the monthly subscription drops to £104 at peak hours.
If your company joins the gym on behalf of its employees, you may also get cut-price membership. Holmes Place offers a 10% discount.
Alternatively, your company could offer gym membership as part of its benefits package. It would pay the monthly subscription on your behalf, but you would have to pay tax at your marginal rate on the benefit. So if the total annual cost of membership was £480, a higher-rate taxpayer would pay £192 in extra tax.
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It is also worth looking beyond the well-known health and fitness brands. Some private schools allow members of the public to use their facilities, and they could work out cheaper than traditional gyms.
The James Allen’s Girls’ School sports club in south London has a relatively high joining fee of £50, but adults pay just £32 a month to use its gym, fitness studio and pool.
Finally, you could cut the cost of getting in shape by taking out private medical insurance. Pru Health, the insurer, offers membership of Cannons and Holmes Place for just £25 a month if you take out its private medical insurance. And it is offering six months’ free membership if you sign up before the end of February.
Nicola Buckley, a 25-year-old who works in the City of London, was paying £70 a month for membership of her local Cannons health club in Wimbledon before she read about Pru Health. She took out private medical insurance costing £33 a month and her gym memberhip dropped to £25 — a total of £58, so she saved £12 a month. She also earns points every time she goes to the gym, which knocks money off her premiums.