I was with Anytime Fitness until I moved, and I could only get out of my contract by sending them a copy of my new driver's license. I was willing to pay the ETF, but they demanded I show them my license in-person to get out, when I was hundreds of miles away. Finally I cancelled the card they were charging, let them sweat for a bit, then called and said "offer me some other way and you will get your money". They then let me email them.

But yeah, if I didn't have proof that I moved, I would have been stuck in the contract forever.

Isn't that fairly risky? What if they had passed the account to collections?

I had a record showing that I had tried to be reasonable, so if anyone reasonable was willing to talk to me, they could see that. But the reason I didn't just cancel the card and leave it at that is exactly that reason. After a month of them trying to bill me on a cancelled card, I called them and offered to pay the ETF PLUS the late fee if they would just let me email them proof that I had moved. It was still cheaper than flying back just to show them my drivers license.

I'd be more concerned with having to register with a city....

This is common if you live abroad - registering with the foreign police.

Sounds like s/he signed a contract with the gym which s/he only break if leaving town.

It wasn't quite that bad... I could cancel for any reason, but only up to something like a month before the next billing cycle.

I of course realized this around 2 weeks before the next billing cycle, so I would have been forced to pay for the whole year if I didn't show that I was leaving the city.

So I certainly have some blame to my name for not having read the contract more carefully... it just all seemed a bit crazy at the time for a gym membership.

"Outside of the contractual limits".