Watch out for automatic bill pay at the gym chain off I-95

I signed up for that big-name fitness center near the mall in March and set up auto-pay at $39 a month. Last month I noticed they charged me $89 without any notice or email about a rate change. I called them twice and got two different stories about a 'membership tier adjustment' nobody approved. Ended up having to dispute the charges with my bank and cancel the card they had on file. Check your statements carefully if you use auto-pay anywhere, even for stuff you trust. Has anyone else gotten random price hikes like this from gyms or subscription services?

2 comments

2 Comments

skyler_craig8d ago

Yo that's honestly such a pain. I feel for you, gyms are the absolute worst about sneaky billing like this. I had a similar thing happen with a streaming service a few months back where they just quietly bumped me from $12 to $18 without a single heads up. It's crazy how they think nobody will notice lol. Good call on disputing with your bank and cancelling the card, that's pretty much the only way to get them to stop sometimes. I always triple check my statements now for any weird charges, it's sad but you really can't trust auto-pay with most companies anymore.

kellymurphy8d ago

Totally feel this @skyler_craig. It's like these companies bet on you being too busy to notice a couple bucks here and there, and they're usually right. I had a phone plan do the exact same thing, went up $5 a month for "network improvements" that I never noticed. Now I go through my bank app every Sunday morning like a ritual just to catch anything sketchy. It's exhausting but honestly you can't just trust them anymore, they'll run with whatever they can get away with.