Gym Membership Annual Increases

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Every year in January with Virgin Active it is the same story with the January health club membership increases that are astronomically high. How can these types of increases even happen as surely the gym is going to lose it's clientele. Saying that there are many more signing up each year in January so I guess these are expected losses.

Someone advised this person to take out a medical aid (private medical, life cover, savings account with Discovery or the vitality active membership which is only R159 which is offering the same benefits but 14 x cheaper. What makes no business sense is why they increase the membership fees by so much in this case by 50% if someone is already paying over the odds already. Surely a 10% increase would be far smarter and a way of keeping the revenue up.

The difference in price that the customers are paying in membership fees is kind of confusing due to the deals being offered through the other businesses linked with Virgin Active. Another person was paying R1700 monthly and took out a Vitality package and now pays R367. It is like the medical aid/private medical and insurance companies use the gym membership inflated pricing to boost other sales.

I was reading another article which stated the average SA household that has gym membership spends 5.4% of their total income on this activity and is more than their entertainment allowance.

Every year we see the fall out with gym memberships as we have a client we service in the health industry and January/February sales are the busy months for treadmills and other home gym equipment. Just think if a family of four has gym membership without any of the special package deals or discounts then you could finance a really good home gym and one would save a small fortune.

The horror stories tend to happen later in the year from around June July when the new members who have decided to change their lifestyle and sign up for a gym membership. The New Years resolution tends to catch out these new members signing up on some gym "special" that only lasts 6 months, but is a 12 month contract. The fine print hides the horrors and that taking the special means you cannot cancel the contract unless you pay penalties. The membership fee will increase and not be anywhere close to the special introductory offer. Gyms are a business that benefits or preys on those who are not aware of what they are signing and what the price will be in 6 months time.

I just do not understand how someone can be paying R300 per month ($20) because they have life cover with a certain insurance company and the person training next to them who also has life cover with another company is paying R2000 per month ($130) and it just sounds so screwed up. I have not looked into whether Discovery has shares in Virgin Active or how they are involved as Virgin definitely does help boost Discovery's sales. There has to be some kick backs because these offers do not happen with other gyms besides Virgin Active.

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