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> If they want your money they'd have to take you to small claims. No, they'll just send it to collections, and now your credit is dinged for seven years becau

> If they want your money they'd have to take you to small claims. No, they'll just send it to collections, and now your credit is dinged for seven years because unless they violated their contract with you, you're still liable for the charges.

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
Ive never heard of gyms doing that. Is it real? They are not a lender and are not lending money to you, so I don’t see how they can affect your credit report. There’s no credit involved. Anyone actually have a credit report with an unpaid gym membership in the report?
- TylerE 4y ago
  There is credit involved, because the contracts are worded such that's, say, a 12 month contract paid in monthly installments. The credit is the outstanding balance vs. if you had paid for the full year in cash up front. Your credit report is answering one question: How good are you about paying for things you've agreed to pay for.
- bluGill 4y ago
  Seems unlikely - collections only want to work with bills large enough that their odds of payment make it worth talking to you. Collectors never gives full price, they pay the person you owe some smaller amount, and when you pay they collect the difference. There are levels of collections though the first is for things where they expect you will pay, you just need a payment plan (some medical labs don't do billing in house, they always sell it to collections), so collections will buy the bill for the pull price minus $50 (or some minimal amount in that range): since most people are going to pay collections just needs to setup the details for which $50 is a fair price. At the other end there are bills that they know you are not going to pay, collections will buy the a multi-thousand dollar bill for $1, and see if they can get any form of payment at all out of you. Anyway, the bottom line is for a gym you are never going to owe enough that it is worthwhile for collections to touch it.
  - treeman79 4y ago
    I had a book from college that went missing. Paid 100 at start of semester. Supposed to return it at end. 99 dollar ding on credit. Hundreds of calls from hundreds of numbers about it. Took years to finally block all the numbers. Beyond abusive.
- AdmiralAsshat 4y ago
  Worked on collections software for XX years. I definitely knew of a few clients that collected on behalf of gyms. You'd be surprised what gets sent to collections. I recall one client that collected on behalf of a fried chicken restaurant.
_yb2s 4y ago
I don't think they can do this- generally credit is tracked by social security number (in the USA). If you don't provide them with one, they will not be able to report you to a credit bureau.
- rationalist 4y ago
  Do you have a source, because I'm pretty sure that's false — they can use a combination of other identifying information such as name, birthdate, and address.
bob1029 4y ago
I've let a few things go to collections over the years. Comcast disputes, etc. Never really saw any impact from this. Total charge-offs probably around $1000. Not once have I had an issue getting financing or mortgage. If you are intending to pay cash for everything, you don't even need a credit score. No one cares about who you are or what you did when you walk in the door with a bag of cash in each hand.

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago

Ive never heard of gyms doing that. Is it real? They are not a lender and are not lending money to you, so I don’t see how they can affect your credit report. There’s no credit involved. Anyone actually have a credit report with an unpaid gym membership in the report?

TylerE 4y ago
There is credit involved, because the contracts are worded such that's, say, a 12 month contract paid in monthly installments. The credit is the outstanding balance vs. if you had paid for the full year in cash up front. Your credit report is answering one question: How good are you about paying for things you've agreed to pay for.
bluGill 4y ago
Seems unlikely - collections only want to work with bills large enough that their odds of payment make it worth talking to you. Collectors never gives full price, they pay the person you owe some smaller amount, and when you pay they collect the difference. There are levels of collections though the first is for things where they expect you will pay, you just need a payment plan (some medical labs don't do billing in house, they always sell it to collections), so collections will buy the bill for the pull price minus $50 (or some minimal amount in that range): since most people are going to pay collections just needs to setup the details for which $50 is a fair price. At the other end there are bills that they know you are not going to pay, collections will buy the a multi-thousand dollar bill for $1, and see if they can get any form of payment at all out of you. Anyway, the bottom line is for a gym you are never going to owe enough that it is worthwhile for collections to touch it.
- treeman79 4y ago
  I had a book from college that went missing. Paid 100 at start of semester. Supposed to return it at end. 99 dollar ding on credit. Hundreds of calls from hundreds of numbers about it. Took years to finally block all the numbers. Beyond abusive.
AdmiralAsshat 4y ago
Worked on collections software for XX years. I definitely knew of a few clients that collected on behalf of gyms. You'd be surprised what gets sent to collections. I recall one client that collected on behalf of a fried chicken restaurant.

_yb2s 4y ago

I don't think they can do this- generally credit is tracked by social security number (in the USA). If you don't provide them with one, they will not be able to report you to a credit bureau.

rationalist 4y ago
Do you have a source, because I'm pretty sure that's false — they can use a combination of other identifying information such as name, birthdate, and address.

bob1029 4y ago

I've let a few things go to collections over the years. Comcast disputes, etc. Never really saw any impact from this. Total charge-offs probably around $1000. Not once have I had an issue getting financing or mortgage. If you are intending to pay cash for everything, you don't even need a credit score. No one cares about who you are or what you did when you walk in the door with a bag of cash in each hand.