How to cancel a wellness membership without the traps
The printed cancellation terms of six chains, checked Nov. 4, 2026, the current status of the FTC's click to cancel rule, what five states say, and how to stop the charges without leaving a debt behind.
Short answer: Find your agreement, cancel by a method it allows, in writing where you can, and keep proof such as a confirmation email. Printed terms vary: Restore prints 30 days’ notice, Hand & Stone says one final payment may be charged, and ClassPass recommends 48 hours before renewal. The FTC’s click to cancel rule was vacated in 2025, so your contract, your state’s rule and a federal law called ROSCA are what count. Stopping a card does not end the contract.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check your contract and your state’s rule, and ask your state attorney general’s consumer office or a lawyer if real money is at stake.
We do not visit or test studios, and we did not cancel anything to write this. The terms below are printed on each business’s own pages and were read on the dates shown. Franchise locations can differ, so the agreement you signed is the one to check.
What six chains print about cancelling
| Chain and page read | Term | How to cancel, and notice | Freeze or pause | Fees and leftovers | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massage Envy (location page, membership page) | “typically for a twelve (12) month term”; renewal “typically automatic” unless you tell the location at the end of the initial term | Contact your home location, the franchise holding your contract. No notice period found on these pages | None found on these pages | Unused sessions “expire and are forfeited if not used within 60 days of membership cancellation” | Nov. 4, 2026; membership page Oct. 29, 2026 |
| Hand & Stone (terms, memberships) | Month-to-Month or Prepaid Term; month-to-month is described as “no commitment” | Cancel “at any time by contacting the spa where the membership was purchased”. “One final membership payment may be charged” | One to three months at participating locations, at each spa’s discretion. A “freeze fee” may apply | Unused credits: redeem within 90 days if a final payment is charged, or 60 days if not. California exception printed | Nov. 4, 2026 |
| Restore Hyper Wellness (UES 84th, New York, memberships post) | “3-month commitment”, then renews monthly | Cancellations must be submitted with 30 days’ notice | None found on these pages | Core credits expire at the end of each month; Level Up and Elevate credits 100 days from issuance | Nov. 4, 2026 |
| Perspire Sauna Studio (FAQ, promotion terms) | “All memberships are month-to-month and auto-renew.” | “in writing or submitted through the mobile app”. No notice period in the FAQ; the promotion terms point to each studio’s Membership Agreement | Pause “for a duration of 1 or 2 months”, not billed, no sessions | None found in the FAQ | Nov. 4, 2026 |
| Planet Fitness (Ann Arbor, Michigan offers) | “No Commitment” offers listed; on a commitment plan the months are the minimum you are billed | “Cancel Online, Anytime!” on the offers listed. With a commitment, “you may be subject to a buyout fee” | None found on this page | “$49 Annual Fee”, “automatically debited from your account once a year”; startup fees of $1 or $49 by plan | Nov. 4, 2026 |
| ClassPass (cancel, pause, fee, refunds) | Renews each month on your cycle date | In the app or on the website. It recommends 48 hours before your renewal date | “we may be able to provide a temporary pause” | “There is no fee to cancel”. No refunds for months of membership. Unused credits are lost | Nov. 4, 2026 |
For comparison, Urban Sweat’s Dallas page, a sauna studio rather than a national chain, prints: “All memberships have a 2-month commitment. Any cancelations require a 30 day written notice.” It also says members “are entitled to a 2-month pause”.
Only Restore and Urban Sweat print a 30-day notice on the pages we read. We found no notice period on the Massage Envy, Hand & Stone or Perspire pages, which does not mean your agreement has none.
How to cancel a membership, step by step
- Find the agreement. Look for the minimum term, the notice period, the method, and any final payment or buyout fee. If you cannot find it, ask the location for a copy in writing, and start the next steps while you wait.
- Work back from your billing date. ClassPass recommends 48 hours before renewal. New York’s Attorney General says a contract that renews monthly must be cancelled within the first three days of the renewal period, or it runs to the next month.
- Use a method the agreement allows, in writing where you can. HelpWithMyBank, the help site of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, says to contact the merchant in writing and keep a copy. If you cancel by phone or in person, follow up in writing the same day.
- Get proof. ClassPass says: “If you do not receive a cancellation confirmation email, your request was not received.” Save the email, a screenshot, the date and the name of anyone you spoke to.
- Use what you paid for. Hand & Stone gives 90 days to redeem credits if a final payment is charged, or 60 days if not. Massage Envy’s page says 60 days. ClassPass says you lose unused credits.
- Check your next two statements. A final payment may be allowed by your agreement. A charge after that is the point to go to the section on card and bank disputes below.
Why to cancel as soon as you have decided
Waiting costs money, and people wait. In a study of three US health clubs, an average of 2.31 full months passed between the last visit and the end of the contract for monthly members, with membership payments of $187 in that gap. For 20 percent of those users the gap was at least four months.
The authors put the cost of cancelling, the time to send a letter or visit the club, at likely less than $15, so effort alone does not explain the delay. Their leading explanation is overconfidence, including about how likely you are to cancel.
That is gym data from one paper. We found no similar study of sauna, massage or wellness studios.
When a hard exit may break the rules
Friction is not automatically legal. New York’s Attorney General sued Aneva Gym in June 2025 over what the office called illegal cancellation policies, and the same release says it secured $600,000 from Equinox for making it hard for New Yorkers to cancel.
At the federal level, the FTC lists LA Fitness among companies in cases alleging negative option abuses, citing FTC v. Fitness Int’l, filed Aug. 20, 2025. That is an allegation, as far as this notice goes, not a ruling.
We found no evidence on whether any chain in the table designs its process to keep people paying, and we do not claim so. If you think a business has crossed a line, your state attorney general’s consumer office is the place to ask.
What happened to the FTC’s click to cancel rule
It is not in force. On July 8, 2025 the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the FTC’s amended Negative Option Rule, because the agency had not carried out a required preliminary regulatory analysis. The court said it did not need to address the other challenges to the rule’s substance.
On Feb. 12, 2026 the FTC restored the older text of 16 CFR Part 425. The FTC describes that rule as governing prenotification plans such as a book-of-the-month club, and says it “does not cover common practices such as continuity plans, automatic renewals, and trial conversions”. So it gives a studio member no click to cancel right.
On March 13, 2026 the FTC asked for comment on possible amendments, and comments closed on April 13, 2026. A search of the Federal Register on Nov. 4, 2026 showed no new rule, so check again if you are reading this later.
ROSCA: the federal law that still applies to online sign-ups
The Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, 15 U.S.C. 8403, covers goods or services sold in a transaction effected on the Internet through a negative option feature. The seller must clearly disclose all material terms before taking your billing information, and get your express informed consent before charging.
It must also provide “simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges”. The FTC says ROSCA is “limited to seller transactions effected on the internet”. So a membership sold at a front desk may fall outside it, and the FTC adds that different rules apply depending on whether an offer is made online, over the phone or in some other medium.
Whether your sign-up counts is a legal question we cannot answer for you. Note how you joined, and keep any screenshots or emails from that day.
What five states say about gym and studio contracts
These are short summaries, read on Nov. 4, 2026, not the full law. We could not read New York’s code site or California’s current cancellation section, so those rows rest on the state’s own guides, and California’s guide is dated April 2012.
| State and source | Soon after signing | Later exits named | How you may cancel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota (325G.25, 325G.60) | Before midnight of the third business day | “You may unilaterally terminate this contract in your exclusive discretion at any time”, with no termination fee. It ends at the end of the membership term in which you gave notice | In person, by phone, mail, email or website message, and other listed ways |
| Florida (501.017) | Within 3 days, exclusive of holidays and weekends | The location closes, or moves more than 5 driving miles without an equal facility; death; physically unable to use the services | Written notice |
| Texas (Occupations Code 702, sections 702.307 and 702.308) | By midnight of the third business day after the contract date | Closure or a move of more than 10 miles; death or total and permanent disability | Written notice by certified mail, with proof of payment |
| New York (Attorney General’s guide) | “within three days of signing it” | You move 25 or more miles from any of the seller’s clubs; a significant physical disability under a doctor’s order; services stop; at renewal | Website, email, telephone, mail or in person |
| California (Legal Guide W-10, April 2012; Civil Code 1812.81) | Five business days of the studio, longer on larger contracts | Disability verified by a physician; death; moving more than 25 miles if you cannot transfer | Check the current Civil Code 1812.85; we could not read it |
Florida shows why the type of business matters. Its general automatic renewal section, 501.165, requires notice 30 to 60 days before the deadline on contracts of 12 months or more, and cancelling by the same means you accepted. It also says it does not apply to a health studio as defined in section 501.0125.
The FTC names other state laws on automatic renewal as examples, including California’s Business and Professions Code section 17600 and following, and Colorado’s, Vermont’s and Virginia’s. We did not read those.
Does your state’s gym law cover a sauna or massage membership?
It may not, so ask. These laws are written around exercise. Minnesota’s health club definition turns on a primary purpose of assistance in physical fitness, Florida’s on a program of physical exercise, and Texas’s on a physical exercise program, though Texas lists saunas among facilities.
New York’s Attorney General says its act covers physical training “as well as spas”. California’s law excludes services by persons licensed in the healing arts.
So a massage spa, an IV lounge or a sauna-only studio may sit outside some of these laws, and Texas also excludes a business operated exclusively to teach dance or aerobic exercise. We cannot tell you which side your membership falls on. Your state attorney general’s consumer office can help, and your contract terms still apply either way.
If they keep charging: your card or bank
Go back to the business in writing first, with your proof, and ask it to stop and refund. Then use your card company or bank.
Credit card. The CFPB says to call the card company right away, and that to protect your rights you must also send a written billing error notice within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on your statement. It adds that “In some cases, the credit card company can reverse the charge.”
Bank account. HelpWithMyBank says you can tell your bank you are revoking authorization, or ask for a stop payment at least three business days before the transaction, and your bank may charge a fee. The federal rule, 12 CFR 1005.10, lets the bank require written confirmation within 14 days of a spoken order.
Stopping the money does not end the contract. HelpWithMyBank says “you should still contact the merchant to cancel the service”. ClassPass’s terms say a member will “remain responsible for any uncollected amounts”. California’s consumer agency, in a 2012 guide on closed clubs, allows for a collection agency demanding payment and tells readers to answer in writing, so keep your record.
You can also complain to the CFPB about a card company at (855) 411-2372, or to your state attorney general about the business.
Other traps to check in your agreement
- Renewal at the end of a term. Massage Envy says renewal is typically automatic unless you tell the location at the end of the initial contract term.
- A buyout fee. Planet Fitness’s page says cancelling before a commitment ends may bring one.
- Prepaid money. Hand & Stone says memberships are “non-transferable and non-refundable”. ClassPass says it does not refund months of membership.
- Coming back. ClassPass’s terms reserve the right to charge a reactivation fee.
- A freeze that is not a right. Hand & Stone’s freeze is at each spa’s discretion, and ClassPass says a pause is something it “may be able to provide”. Ask before you count on one.
FAQ: cancelling a wellness membership
Is the FTC’s click to cancel rule in effect?
No. The Eighth Circuit vacated it on July 8, 2025, and the FTC restored the older rule on Feb. 12, 2026. We found no new rule in the Federal Register on Nov. 4, 2026.
How do I cancel a Massage Envy or Hand & Stone membership?
Both send you to a location. Massage Envy says to contact your home location, and Hand & Stone says to contact the spa where you bought the membership. Do it in writing if you can, and ask for confirmation.
Can I cancel because I moved or was injured?
Some states name these as exits, as the table above shows, but the details differ. Check your contract and your state’s rule, and ask what proof is needed.
Can I just cancel my card?
That may stop the payments, but it does not end the contract, and you may still owe money. Cancel with the business too.
Do I have to pay one more month after cancelling?
Sometimes. Hand & Stone says one final payment may be charged, and Restore prints 30 days’ notice. ClassPass recommends cancelling 48 hours before renewal so you are not charged again.
The bottom line on cancelling a membership
Read your agreement for the term, notice and method, cancel as soon as you have decided, and keep proof.
The FTC’s click to cancel rule is not in force, so your contract and your state’s rule do most of the work. If charges continue after you cancelled, go to the business in writing, then your card company or bank, and note the 60-day and three-business-day limits above.
Related reading on memberships
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