My name is Kyle, I’m 31, and I live in Boise, Idaho. About a year and a half ago, I signed up for a gym membership at Planet Fitness with full confidence that I was about to become one of those people who works out five times a week.
You can probably guess how that went.
For the first two weeks, I went consistently. Treadmill, a few machines, maybe even a set of dumbbells if I was feeling ambitious.
Then life happened.
Work got busy.
It got cold.
I got comfortable.
And slowly, my gym attendance dropped from “several times a week” to “I’ll go tomorrow” to… nothing.
At some point, the membership just became one of those monthly charges I ignored.
Every time I saw the charge on my bank statement, I’d tell myself, “Okay, this is the month I start going again.”
It never was.
Fast forward 18 months.
I realized I had essentially been donating money to a gym I hadn’t stepped foot in for over a year.
So I decided it was time to cancel.
I logged into my account expecting to find a simple “cancel membership” button.
There was no button.
Instead, I found instructions that said I needed to either visit the gym in person or send a written cancellation request.
Already a red flag.
Still, I decided to do it properly and stopped by the gym on my way home from work.
The front desk employee was friendly and handed me a short cancellation form.
I filled it out, signed it, and felt a sense of closure.
Finally free.
Or so I thought.
A few days later, I checked my bank account and saw a charge from Planet Fitness.
$49.
At first I assumed it was the last monthly payment.
But when I checked the description, it said:
“Membership Buyout Fee.”
Now I was confused.
I went back through my original agreement (which I definitely didn’t read carefully when I signed up) and found a clause about a buyout fee if you cancel before a certain term is completed.
The problem?
I had been paying for 18 months.
What exactly was I buying out at that point?
So I called the gym and asked about it.
The employee explained, very casually, that my membership had automatically renewed into a new term, and canceling during that term triggered the $49 fee.
In other words, by not going to the gym and not canceling sooner, I had unknowingly signed myself up for another commitment.
And then paid to escape it.
At this point, I couldn’t even be mad.
It felt less like a fee and more like a final lesson.
A reminder that ignoring a problem for 18 months doesn’t make it go away.
It just makes it slightly more expensive.
So now I’m officially no longer a Planet Fitness member.
$49 poorer.
And strangely motivated to never sign up for something I won’t use again.
Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this experience…
The hardest part of going to the gym isn’t the workout.
It’s leaving the membership.
