After you have completed even a handful of mystery shopping assignments, you likely have developed the understanding that mystery shopping can cost your money just as it can make you money. There are a number of hidden costs associated with mystery shopping that many new mystery shoppers fail to take into account, such as the travel costs and the non-reimbursed portion of a required purchase. After you take these costs into account on some assignments, you may save money simply by staying at home. Before you sign up for any mystery shopping assignments, be sure to a do quick analysis of the assignment first.
Travel Costs. This can be one of the most costly hidden expenses of any assignment, but it’s very easy to calculate the cost if you take a minute or two. Use an online mapping tool to calculate the mileage between the assignment site and where you will be traveling from (typically your home or office). Then take the average miles per gallon of your car and divide that by the number of miles to the job site. This gives you the approximate gallons of gas it will take you to drive to the site. Be sure to multiple the figure by two to get a round-trip estimate of gas consumption. Finally, take that figure and multiply it by the cost of a gallon of gas in your area. This is your travel cost.
Required Purchases. New mystery shoppers may be fooled by the assignment requirements when it comes to required purchases. Often, an assignment requires a minimum purchase of $5 or $10, or a minimum purchase of 5 or 10 items. You may think you will buy an item that is exactly $5, or you may purchase the cheapest five items you can find. And this is where most new mystery shoppers stop this line of thought. Unfortunately, when you get to the store, you may find the cheapest thing at the store is $10 or $15, or you may find that those five cheap items you planned on buying ended up costing you $12.
If you don’t know specifically what you plan to buy at the store and what the item costs, take a minute to research the store’s merchandise online. If you find that a store’s cheapest item is $15, and only $5 is reimbursed, you can see that you will have a loss of $10 on the required purchase.
Do The Math. Take into account all of the areas of payment, such as the shop pay, bonus pay, and reimbursement for purchases. Then subject all of the costs of the assignment. The result is your net profit or net loss for doing the assignment. Keep in mind the 45 minutes to possibly two hours or longer it may take you to do the assignment, including the time to travel, the site visit, and the report. Then you can very quickly calculate the payment per hour to see if the assignment is worth your valuable time.
It’s Not Always What It Seems. If you end up with a very low end result on your total payment calculation, or even if you end up with a net loss, you may still want to take the assignment on. Keep in mind that all assignments are not equal. Some assignments may require you to purchase a frivolous and unnecessary item, such as a pair of earrings or a cigar. Other assignments may require a purchase of an item you were going to make anyway, such as food or gas. If the assignment is for a purchase you were going to make anyway, it is definitely a job worth taking as the payment will supplement a part of your regular expenses.
Also, keep in mind that you can write off your travel expenses on your taxes. This is a bonus you won’t see until tax day, but it is worth taking into considering.
It may seem a bit complicated to make this calculation at first, but if you make a habit of calculating this on each assignment, you will ensure that you never lose money as a mystery shopper. After you get used to the calculation, it will be something you can do very quickly and easily.
Through years of experience, I have factored all the elements you describe. If an assignment seems interesting,I will usually try it one time, to see if it’s worthwhile in the future.
One thing I did not know is: writing off the travel expenses. Can you give me details, as to what to record and where?
I need help in finding the stores that pay you 100 hundred dollars and better. That is why I paid for the the material to belong to the mystery shopper, but so far all I’ve been getting is two- ten dollar jobs and most of the time by time I see them the jobs are already gone
I have removed myself as a shopper from several companies because:
A. The price of gas was more than the $5.00 payment.
B. The neighborhood ws not a safe area for me.
C. They never had, on their list, shops in my town.
Would also like the infor on travel time costs to be used on tax returns.
Thank you
I’m sorry to hear that Regina paid for materials to belong to a mystery shopping site or whatever it is.. Wish I could give you my email,because I could tell you atleast 12 mystery shopping companys that I work with and NEVER payed a penny to sign up.. Some are high payers,some aren’t. There’s no reason for anyone to pay to be a mystery shopper,hope nobody else falls for this..
Angela is correct. NEVER pay to belong to a mystery shopping company. There are hundreds of companies out there who don’t ask for payment. In answer to Cheryl’s question, you can write off mileage on your taxes (Schedule C-Profit or Loss from a Business). I think it’s around $0.50-0.58 per mile. I haven’t done my taxes yet, so I’m not sure of the exact amount. We are independent contractors and are entitled to numerous deductions. In addition to mileage, we can deduct a portion of our internet expenses, unreimbursed expenses, and possibly home office expenses if this is your business. But, we also have to claim our mystery shopping income. Just keep good records, and check with your accountant. There are also a lot of good books on the subject, and materials provided by the IRS.
I agree with some of you. For Regina, most of the companies do not charge any fees except Shadow Shopper. They charge about $40 every 3 months, but they do not have jobs. They are like an agancy and they give your info. to different companies and those companies will send you emails for the jobs. You have to decide what you like and what you can. By the way I have never seen a job where you can get $100 or around. Let me know if you find any.For Angela, I have been working with about 30+ companies. Some I try at least once and if I like them and/or their jobs, I continue with them. Whithin 15 months of time period I have not been paid about 4 times for different resons [ they did not like the report, they claim that it was late even though it was not, they change the guidelines at last momment, etc.]. My email is vrthakkar@hotmail.com, you may send me a list of companies you work with and I can do the same.
Thank you all and Good Luck finding the Best jobs.
Does anyone know about shop til you drop self help publisher. They supposedly have auto enrol with shopping companies as well as excellent customer service. They took my $34.95 but I can get that reversed on the AMEX charge. Any info would be helpful as I am a babe in the woods. Who are the ten best shopping companies i shoiuld sign with. Thank you. Ken in Folsom Ca
Regarding the fuel cost to get to a job: I measure my miles per gallon, using the short trip odometer, or just by writing down my miles for a couple tanks of gas, then divide the miles by the number of gallons. ie, 200 miles/10 gallons = 20 mgp. Then I divide the average cost of a gallon by the MPG. It’s running $2.20 here for regular, so 2.20/20=11 cents a mile…as exact as is practical.
I use Mapquest to determine miles to a site,(doesn’t every one?) then multiply that milage times 11 cents. For round trip x 2. So I know my gas expense easily. Which has finished off all my interest in $5 jobs, unless I’m next door. (5 miles @.11 x round trip = 1.10, so I’m getting $3.90 for the job, an hour or so of my time.)
It’s easy to carry 11 cents in my head, and easier to multiply times the milage then figure out gallons, then dollars each time.
I use the same .11 figure to decide whether to “save” a couple dollars buying at an out of the way store.
I am doing mystery shops for over 4 years and I never paid to find an assignment.
I always have been paid for my shops. Some companies take 60 days but the payment came.
My email is aileco1@hotmail.com, you may send me a list of companies you work with and I can do the same.
Thank you all.
Celia
A tip about MapQuest: One company offered to reimburse me for mileage on two different shops. They had used MapQuest to calculate the distances. The figures were ‘way off!’ So I used the odometer to check the mileage. They ended up paying me more than three times what they would have otherwise.
Deb, how did you determine the amount per mile of reimbursement? That is a fair way to offer it to the companies. I get the same situation where I am but have not figured out what amount per mile to ask for.
The IRS stipulates what the mileage reimbursement is. It used to be .45 per mile but I think it’s more now. Call the IRS and ask.
To qualify for the mileage reimbursement for tax purposes you will need to know:
a) the amount of miles on your vehicle the beginning of the tax year (usually Jan 1)
b) the amount of miles on your vehicle at the end of the tax year (usually Dec 31)
c) the amount of miles used for business purposes.
The amount per mile is determined by the IRS.
Here’s to a better year! 🙂