Previous gym had us in a contract. This is what I've learned since then. There are 2 other very good gyms in this area, neither have contracts. We are now at 1 of these gyms and have had an extremely happy transition!! We completely trust their decision for our dd. It has been a completely drama-free year. I spoke to owner of other very good gym in the area, who basically said, "if you have to sign a contract with a gym, you have to wonder why they would NEED a contract", um yes, that explains everything about old gym. They would make big promises of who new coaches would be, schedules, etc. then tell you if you didn't sign contract by x date, your dd would lose their spot on that level. It was very pushy and would make you feel that there wasn't a choice. They bad mouthed both the other gyms in the area. They would say that our new gym made the girls repeat constantly and that's why they scored so well and that the coaches were terribly mean, yelling & berating to the girls. What a shame that they can outright lie about other gyms like that. I was so scared to switch my dd because of what they told me & I can definitely say it was all lies. Interestingly enough, old gym made girls repeat all the time!! Actually, owner tried to have my dd repeat when she was in the top 3 scorers on her team, soooo what does that say about them??
And I do agree with bookworm about not leaving a credit card for monthly charges, that was not smart for us.