Has anybody here tried Gympact?

[Skinnyneo]

I've been a user of Runkeeper for over a year to track my runs and more recently my cycling activities (join my run team if you like).  They recently sent me an email about how I can get paid for all those KM that I am pumping out via a service called Gympact.

The gist that I got was you have to download the Gympact app to your iPhone and setup an account.  You must give them a credit card.  The service works like this:  You set up a schedule saying you will exercise a certain amount of days a week (this can be a gym, running, cycling, etc).  For everyday that you go you get paid (I think it's about $0.50 a day or something depending on your commitment).  For everyday that you miss they will charge you a certain amount that you choose (from $5.00 to $50.00). 

The service works by locating your gym and setting up a geo-fence around it.  You must be in the gym for at least 30 minutes to qualify as completing a workout.

Gympact now is integrated with Runkeeper and I was thinking about setting this up as I ride to work 4 days a week anyway but always the cautious one decided I would ask around. 

Anyone here have any experience or see any pot holes in this kind of service?  The website is http://www.gym-pact.com/

[arebelspy]

You are counting on others to fail for this to be a legitimate service.  Otherwise they are paying out more than taking in, and that obviously isn't sustainable.

[Skinnyneo]

That's exactly how it works.  The creator is a psychologist (from Harvard for what its worth) so I am assuming they have run the numbers and that the stats show a certain percentage of people won't make their work outs.  Again that's an assumption.

Personally I'm not looking at the service as a reason to get motivation nor a way to pay the bills.  I already have motivation (as I think many of us here do as well) and my bills are paid for.  But if I can get some extra capital from doing what I'm already doing why not. 

Just wanted to check if any other users were using the service and if they had run into any problems.  For example I know you can only take out money once you have earned $10.00 in your Gympact account.  Are there any other catches?

[Cnugteren]

I tried GymPact with runkeeper and out of five correctly registered weeks I only received a reward for two. So only 6 dollars for 25 workouts.. At the risk of losing 125!
(My pact was 5 workouts per week and a 5 dollar penalty per missed workout, I missed none)
GymPact's customer service is very bad, they have never given me an explanation and I must have sent them 5-10 emails/tweets/ bug reports.
So my advice: don't use GymPact

[Skinnyneo]

I tried GymPact with runkeeper and out of five correctly registered weeks I only received a reward for two. So only 6 dollars for 25 workouts.. At the risk of losing 125!
(My pact was 5 workouts per week and a 5 dollar penalty per missed workout, I missed none)
GymPact's customer service is very bad, they have never given me an explanation and I must have sent them 5-10 emails/tweets/ bug reports.
So my advice: don't use GymPact

Thanks for adding your experience to the post. 

After I started this thread I also started a Gympact account but I have so far had a very good experience.

My pact is only for 3 days a week and $5 penalties.  I bike four days a week but figured it would be best to limit it to 3 just in case something were to happen.  For example last week I started getting sick so I took the train an extra day. 

So far Gympact has paid me each week (about 5 weeks now).  My winnings have ranged from about $1.50 to $1.90 or so.  You must have $10 in your account before you can withdraw money so I haven't actually been paid just yet. 

You might think that it's not a whole lot of money but actually at this rate Gympact will pay me more than ANY of my dividend paying stocks (I'm only in my first year of investing so I hope this changes).  When you look at it that way it's not bad.  Plus I'm going to be biking anyway so I might as well grab an extra $60-$80 a year.

Cnugteren is correct about their customer service.  They are slow, and sometimes just don't reply.  They promise you a $5 bonus for the first pact that you finish but so far at almost six weeks in I have yet to be paid that bonus AND I've emailed them on multiple occasions about it.  If I had been having more problems his would really make me upset.

My suggestion is if you have a GPS enabled phone and are biking to work already anyway you can make some extra cash with Gym-pact.  Be conservative and put your pact at one day less than what you actually do per week.  That way you can get used to it and if something comes up you have a buffer.

[kudy]

Do they have a "sick" mode or something? I'd be afraid of getting the flu and paying in a ton of money.

[cbr shadow]

A coworker of mine uses this and pacts for 7 days/week.  He makes around $2 per week doing this, at a risk of losing $5 per week.  I am at the gym 6 days/week anyway so I wanted to join as well, but I have an Android phone and this app only works with Iphones.  I noticed several apps for making money are only available for the Iphone.   That sucks, but I'll still always have an android phone over an apple product because of the many other thing I do that an Iphone doesn't allow. 
My coworker does like Gympact and plans on continuing to use it.  Like someone else said, this isn't something that will make you rich, but if you're going anyway you might as well make a buck or two doing it.

[Skinnyneo]

Do they have a "sick" mode or something? I'd be afraid of getting the flu and paying in a ton of money.

I do think if you are sick and get a doctors not that will forgive a missed day at the gym.

A coworker of mine uses this and pacts for 7 days/week.  He makes around $2 per week doing this, at a risk of losing $5 per week.  I am at the gym 6 days/week anyway so I wanted to join as well, but I have an Android phone and this app only works with Iphones.  I noticed several apps for making money are only available for the Iphone.   That sucks, but I'll still always have an android phone over an apple product because of the many other thing I do that an Iphone doesn't allow. 
My coworker does like Gympact and plans on continuing to use it.  Like someone else said, this isn't something that will make you rich, but if you're going anyway you might as well make a buck or two doing it.

That's true for gym visits.  I use Runkeeper to track my bike rides which is for both Android and iPhone.

I would argue that getting even $2 a week will help make you rich.  Over one year that is approximately $104.  That's like owning 57 shares of AT$T stock (currently a $1932 value and paying $1.80 dividend per year) just for working out.  Invest that $104 into stocks and after 10 years you've received more than $1000 in stocks just for keeping healthy.  It all snowballs.

If you plan ahead and know you won't be able to make it to the gym one week you can cancel your pact for that week or for the foreseeable future.  You of course have to stick with it but if you sell your car and move close to work you won't have a choice but to succeed!

[DreamingofFreedom]

I use it and have had a positive experience.  The money isn't exactly making me rich, but it is a wonderful motivator for me.  There is no way I will skip a workout if it will cost me $5.

By the way, there's a $5 referral bonus now- if you refer a friend, both you and the friend get $5 automatically.