Bally does not tell you when you are joining that the contract is actually a type of credit account that shows up on your credit report. This is deceptive. Lenders can be fined and go to jail for practices like this, but apparently Bally has found a loophole. If they are going to treat your membership like a loan, there should be up front disclosure of this fact. But it is not in the contract. Do not sign a contract if you can help it; at least take this as a warning that you will have all payments reported to the credit bureaus (which includes late payments, whether or not they are accurate). Also, beware that only under two rare circumstances are you allowed to get out of your contract or change it in any way. They will not tell you this when you join. They're deceptive, fraudulent scam artists - no wonder they have declared bankruptcy TWICE in recent years.‎