why is the cost of gym membership such a massive secret?

I was a member of a fitness first in Essex a couple of years ago and it was £36.00 pm with corporate membership (worked for a high street bank at the time)

hth Mrs G

Oo blimey thats good. so without it hopefully its the £50-60 area. Although might be able to get corporate membership, the esporta man told MrH he could get it even though no one else in his company was joining (and not a local company, bizarre)

Thanks

I am in the SE (Camberley) and I am a member of Fitness First. I pay £36.75 a month for the most basic membership (I can't go to other FF gyms etc for example, and my gym doesn't have a pool).

ETA I don't have corporate membership (I could, but I'd have to become a non-member for some period of time so that I could be a new member to get the discount - a lot of faff for the sake of around £3 per month)

A lot of the time, the reason they don't tell you the price is because they can 'do you a special deal', dependent on when you'll visit, what you use...whether they have a special offer on because the day has the letter 'O' in...etc.

If they give you a price...be prepared to battle it down, they need your custom.

However I'm with curves and they charge £40 per month.

I pay £47 a month for peak membership in Lewisham.

I rang a gym a couple of months ago - I can't even remember which chain it was now. I asked for their prices and they wouldn;t tell me unless I came in for a chat. I told them I wanted to know the prices befor doing that, and again they refused. I told them in that case then, I would take my customer elsewhere. They said OK. How odd. Why would you rather lose business than tell someone your prices?

Oh don't get me started on this. I've been looking for a gym as well and they are loads in our area, I don't have time to keep 'popping in for a chat' at each and every one of them.

Some of our council ones publish prices on website and others not, as they are run by private companies. Most of the gyms I have seen have different prices for different contract terms e.g. no contract £48 per month down to £30 for 24 month contract. I'm in North Bucks.

Forgot to say (if it helps) that non corporate membership was £10.00 pm dearer. I had peak membership so could go at any time to gym, do classes etc but there was no pool at my gym. H had a corporate membership as well although he only works for a small local family owned company, so you can probably talk yourself into a deal if you're good at that sort of thing. Like someone else said they're always after new members at ff so a deal can usually be done.

Thats the thing, I only want a general idea. There is clearly a big difference between a £35 a month gym and a £120 one, and I'm not stupid enough to think I can get the £120 one for thirty quid.

I know the price they quote is made with an expectation of negotiation, but a general idea does no harm "its usually £60 but we can always check to see if we have any offers for you" would do. As LG mentioned, I am not booking in meetings with all of them, who has time for that? Grr.

That said I like the schedule at FF and they seem pretty averagly priced from the members on here so i may go to visit that one. No pool though.

When you do go to FF ask what the minimum period is on the contract as this affects the price per month i.e 3 month memberships are more expensive than 12. its swings and roundabouts as to whether you want to pay the extra for the benefit of cancelling if you dont like it. I used to work for their customer services and the amount of people that didn't read what they were signing up to was unreal.

I think I'll go for the year as I can't see myself ever hating a gym so much I can't stick out a year of it. I think the location will be the decider really. Thanks

I used to think it was because the price was negotiable but when we joined our local Esporta which is now a Virgin the girl wasn't budging on the price so why they don't give the info is beyond me. Virgin did actually give me their membership price list when I enquired if I could save some money. Turns out I was paying £44.95 for their membership to cover all gyms when I could have saved myself £5 and just had a membership for my particular gym. I pay £39.95 now if it's any help.

Wow im quite shocked at some of these prices - I am a member of my local council gym and as I also work for the council I get, gym, pool and all classes at a choice of 4/5 different locations for £20 a month.

? long time no see ?

All this talk of you joining a gym has me reaching for the Walkers crisps I am now scoffing so thanks for that!

Hope you are well.