Our Payments Policy
Viva Gymnastics Club accepts payment for services via our website (www.viva-gymnastics.club); the payment methods currently available are PayPal and Stripe. When payment is recurring monthly for an ongoing service, such as a monthly membership plan, these payments (direct debits) will be taken on the same day every month; for example, if your membership plan is purchased on 1st May, your first payment will be taken on 1st May and subsequent payments will be taken on the 1st of every month until your plan ends or is cancelled.
Your payments when paid via this method are calculated over a 48 week year. We average out your payments to cover bank holidays and closures including Christmas and New Year. For this reason, it is at Viva Gymnastics Club’s discretion as to whether we run any catch-up sessions to cover any of these times. In the event of unexpected closures, we will offer children catch-up sessions and we will email out the available times for these catch-ups. No refunds will be offered unless in exceptional circumstances and deemed by the Head Coach to be appropriate.
We will accept bank transfers to ‘top-up’ a plan in certain circumstances, such as when children move from one plan to another plan of higher value or if there is no available plan that is suitable for the hours we have offered. This method of payment will only be possible as a short-term arrangement and can be declined by the Head Coach if a plan is available and has not been signed up to. Continuing to pay by bank transfer when you have been asked to sign up to a membership plan (direct debit) instead may put your gymnast’s place in their session at risk. The Head Coach will advise you of the amount required to ‘top-up’ a plan by bank transfer and this payment method must be cleared by the Head Coach first.
While we can accept cash for low value items sold such as sweets or raffle tickets, we can no longer accept cash payments for sessions unless they fall under the above categories. As we calculate your fees over 48 weeks to keep payments steady every month, cash payments would vary from month to month depending on the day of the session attended. Due to the increase in administration this would require, as well as the concern of having cash in the gyms, payment for sessions by cash, bank transfer or standing order are not options we can support in the long term. As a charity and a business, we must be able to quickly, easily and accurately track customers’ payments. The website booking system, where customers sign up for membership plans and pay via PayPal or Stripe, allows us to do this, as well as to accurately disclose our year-end reports to the Charity Commission.
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We take our commitment to transparency very seriously. Please do not transfer money into the Club’s bank account unless you have express permission from the Head Coach.
Our commitment to fairness with regards to payments
There may be exceptional circumstances where cash is the only method available to a family. In these instances, the Head Coach will decide if we are able to accept cash payments. Please note – if the Head Coach expresses permission for cash payments, your overall monthly subscription fees will vary slightly from month-to-month due to the reasons given above, and therefore no catch-up sessions will be offered as payment will not cover catch-ups. Your payments will need to be calculated depending on how many weeks are in each month and how many of your session days fall in those weeks. Viva Gymnastics Club will have to invoice you at the end of the month for the following month’s session fees. We can not take multiple months' subscription fees in a single payment; each month must be paid in full before the commencement of that month. We reserve the right to withdraw this payment option if full payment covering all of the next month’s sessions has not been made before the commencement of the next month.