Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bally's No, they don't "give" you money, I am never good at math, so I'll skip the math & just give you an idea.... for example, after they sweet talk into you buying their premium silver plantium 5 year membership. the membership per months is "X" dollars, total cash price is $4000 for 5 years, if you dont pay cash, they will lend you the money to pay for it; they break it down into monthly payments that INCLUDES the interest of "X"%. The total amount after 5 year including interest might be over 5000. If you decide to quit, unless you die, you are handicap, or moved to a place that doesn't have Bally within 50 miles. You cannot cancel, if you do, you still have to pay all the interest & penalty. So just like when you get a car-loan from a dealer, you are "borrowing" the money from BaLLYS to pay the 5 year "membership" that you don't need...
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bally's Thanks zyzy. That certainly is a scam. I can't believe people actually fall for that. :/
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bally's You need to think of this in terms of a credit purchase from Conn's, Best Buy, or Circuit City not a personal or signature loan. For example, if you bought a new refrigerator from Best Buy using Best Buy's retail installment purchase, do they give you cash? No, you get a refrigerator (and a Best Buy credit line) and they get your money for a specified length of time. In the case of Bally's, a customer will typically sign a 3-year retail installment credit contract and then you receives membership priviledges in exchange for your paying for these priviledges for the next 3-years. Unless you pay cash or charge your membership fee lump sum to a credit car, only at the end of the 3-year finance contract, when you renew, do you become a customer of Bally's Fitness. Problem is, most people do not stop and do the math, the membership fee for Ballys is actually not that expensive ($599), it is the finance divisions interest charges that make the membership such a bad value (21% over 3-years). In actuality, when a person signs the contract with Bally's, you just became a customer of Bally's Financial Services subsidiary and not Bally's Health and Fitnesss. Truth be told, if you really want to join Bally's, then you would be better served to go to your bank or credit union and take out a signature loan to pay for the membership. At least in this way, the financial obligation would report to the CRA's! I am willing to bet that if from this day forth, 90-95% of Bally's new clients paid cash instead of using the retail installment contract option, Bally's would end up going out of business due to the loss of all that interest revenue! Michael
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bally's I understand now. Thanks guys. It still smacks of a scam. I can't believe they are getting away with this. I'm sure there are other health facilities that don't scam their customers. :\
Re: Bally's There are - I go to 24-hour fitness. I am sure that there will be someone who has also had a bad experience with them, but I have been a 24-hour fitness member for about 3-years without any problems. I pay the same each month (EFT from checking) for an all-access rate that lets me use all of their clubs across the country (except Sport Clubs) as I would for what Bally's charges for a 1-club only 'membership'. I also noticed that 24-hour had a recent offer of 3 years for $599. Given my current monthly dues, that would come out to a cost savings of nearly $590 over comparable monthly dues for the same 3 year period. Michael
