Cepta Lyons from Dublin 6 went to her local gym, LA Fitness, recently, determined to sign up for its off-peak membership.

With a monthly cost of €39 it seems fairly reasonable but she was so put off by the administrative charges that the gym attaches to the registration process that she decided to go elsewhere.

"I was about to sign the contract," she writes, "when I noticed an extra payment of €40 on my first direct debit. This came under the heading of 'administration'." She questioned how the simple act of filling out a form could possibly cost €40 and was told it was "part of the process".

Lyons says staff told her that the charges in a rival gym would be 10 times higher.

Unsatisfied by this response, she repeated her request for an explanation "as to they why they were taking €40 of my money just as 'part of a process'. They couldn't explain any further, but did advise me that the decision was completely mine: 'take it or leave it'. I left it."

She says that although LA Fitness hold classes that she would love to attend she couldn't justify giving anybody €40 of her hard-earned money just because they asked for it. She phoned the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs who explained that the gym could charge any amount they pleased. "I also phoned the Carlisle Gym and their annual fee is €495 for full membership, with an added bonus of a second membership free to the end of 2006. They have no administration fee.

"Wouldn't it be more honest if LA Fitness displayed the actual price of their offers rather than an attractive lower price, plus a hidden administration fee?" she asks. "They were, in fact, intending to charge me for 13 months while giving only 12 months' membership."

She says while some people she has mentioned this to have advised her to pay up on the grounds that it is "only €40" she finds herself "physically, emotionally, and psychologically incapable" of doing that.

We called LA Fitness to find out what the €40 charge was for.

The manager said it covered a good deal more than the registration process: "The start-up fee is not exclusively for administrative costs although part of it does cover setting up the direct debits with the banks and things like that." He said the money also covers the cost of the membership card, a member's induction, the initial fitness assessment and the reviews the gym offers every six weeks.

"It is an industry-wide thing; we have done away with joining fees but the administrative fee is still in place to get you started," he said.

For a better rate, pay sterling

Many readers have contacted PriceWatch over the last couple of years to complain about the ridiculous conversion rates employed on price tags that contain both sterling and euro prices.

When we have contacted various retailers to ask why the exchange rate seems to work so unfairly against Irish consumers, they have bleated on about higher rents, wages and rates of VAT in the Republic compared to Britain to justify the higher euro cost.

Pat O'Donnell from Gorey, Co Wexford, was put out when he saw just such a price ticket, but he found a novel way of dealing with it.

After his wife bought a two-pack of vests at the local branch of Heatons with a price tag that read €10/£5 - an unfair conversion rate by any definition - he simply returned to the shop, explained the situation to the "helpful and courteous" staff who refunded his €10 and accepted a £5 note in its place.

Medicine with frontiers

Still more on the high prices in Irish pharmacies. A reader has been in touch to point out that a one-inch tube of Zovirax cold-sore cream which sells in Dublin for around €9.13 was on sale earlier this summer on one of the Greek islands for €2.75.

Service charges

Claire Bradley e-mailed us illustrating the need to shop around to get your car serviced. She found a serious price discrepancy when she went to get her 2004 Citroen C2 serviced. "I rang six garages, including the one where I purchased the car, and found prices ranged from €170 to €300 - and all gave varying information about when I should have it serviced."

Higher protection for hire cars

A reader has directed us to a potentially useful website which offers extra protection for people hiring cars. Car rental agreements normally include cover for collision damage waiver (CDW) and theft leaving you liable for the excess. For a low fee, www.insurance4carhire.com provides excess insurance to protect against such charges. "We got badly stung by a car hire company," our reader writes. "A one-day rental, that we returned after hours unmarked, but which got damaged in the car park overnight cost us €400."