> In general, you really want to try to avoid being sued.
In reality, companies will do almost anything to avoid suing you for small amounts of money. The financials don't make sense. E.g. how much gym debt would it take to justify a lawyer's fees to pursue you? Not less than several thousand dollars, probably much more.
Depends. I've personally been to small claims court and seen what appeared to be a staff attorney for Capital One suing dozens of people for overdue balances.
I'm pretty sure the big gyms that have in-house collections. I would imagine people signing a year contract and then changing their mind and trying to get out of it happens quite often.
This might be true under the US legal system, where as I understand it each party usually pays their own costs. In a loser-pays system, particularly one with an efficient small claims procedure, the conclusion might be different.
In any case, if you're wilfully and knowingly taking on debts you can't repay and using a card like this to CYA, your bigger risk in some places might be getting arrested for criminal fraud. Good luck ever getting credit again whatever the CRAs say about you if you've also got a criminal record for a fraud-related offence.
In reality, companies will do almost anything to avoid suing you for small amounts of money. The financials don't make sense. E.g. how much gym debt would it take to justify a lawyer's fees to pursue you? Not less than several thousand dollars, probably much more.