I’ve heard that even if the charge doesn’t go through, some companies don’t cancel your plan. They keep the plan active with an outstanding balance that keeps growing.
Yup. I've heard of gyms trying to send people through hoops to cancel, so they just call their bank and tell them to block charges in the future from the gym.
So the gym just lets them collect a balance and then threatens to send the bill to collections if it's unpaid.