Aussie Gym Membership News Article

Machka9

This is an interesting article about gym memberships here in Australia.

There are charts listing the annual fees, in case you ever wondered.

And the point of the article is that a lot of people are wasting their money getting a gym membership.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/lazy-aussies-wasting-18-billion-on-unused-gym-memberships/news-story/6243cf35a8424a8dfa212ea17c1a0208


I know there are people who do use gyms regularly, which is great ... for several years I did too.

But in recent years ...

My husband and I got a gym membership when we moved to the city we live in ... and ended up rarely using it. We're cyclists so most of our exercise is on bicycles. We've got a small home gym, and can cycle inside with Zwift when the weather isn't good. So we only got into the gym about once a week.

Now we drop into another gym when we want to go ... the pressure is off!

GOT_Obsessed

I know lots of people who pay monthly for a gym membership but just refuse to cancel it because they claim they do intend to go. That is such a waste of money.

AnvilHead

That's how gyms make their money - from all the people who sign up and never show up, but maintain their memberships. If everybody who had gym memberships regularly used the gyms, they would be packed like Tokyo subways.

GOT_Obsessed wrote: »

I know lots of people who pay monthly for a gym membership but just refuse to cancel it because they claim they do intend to go. That is such a waste of money.

That's one of the big reasons why "big box" gyms like Planet Fitness have such low monthly membership fees (and auto-debit). They know tons of people will sign up and maintain their memberships because the cost is next to nothing and they never even see it since it comes out of their account automatically every month. And as you said, everybody "intends to go", so they want to have that membership ready for when they get around to it (usually January 1st, and lasting until about January 15th every year, lol.)

Stockholm_Andy

I wish I paid what you pay for a gym membership in Australia. My monthly fee is about $20aussie per month more than the most expensive one on that list! (I could get much cheaper to be fair but this is a big chain with lots of gyms across the city with a wide range of opening times and facilities)

Still for me it represents good value as I use it 6-7 times per week. That said when I had space for a home gym I used that just as often too.

I agree with Anvil though they definitely make their money from the people only using them occasionally.

GOT_Obsessed

When I started at the gym last Oct. 1st, I heard a stat something like "Only 9% of all yearly gym memberships will get renewed." Don't quote me. It might have even been 7%; I can't remember. I am in Canada.

But that stat surprised me. That is horrible. That was a huge motivator for me to keep plugging away. I don't want to be a quitter!