With gas prices continuing to rise, and in some parts of the country exceeding $4 per gallon, many mystery shoppers are trying to find ways to cut back on travel costs. For many, this means finding assignments that are located closer to home, and it also means picking up an extra gas station assignment or two so you can get at least a little bit of free gas (or at least a reimbursement on your gas purchase).
Yet phone assignments are also a great way to cut down on travel assignments. Many mystery shoppers in the past have passed over these assignments because generally they do pay less money than assignments that require you to do an on-site visit. However, as gas continues to rise and with prices expected to rise even more throughout the next few months, these assignments are worth another look. So how can you make phone assignments work for you?
Compensation. The compensation on these assignments really runs the gamut. You can find some assignments that pay in the $2-5 range, and these generally just take a few minutes of your time. You may shun such low-paying assignments, but the fact is that $5 for a 2-3 minute phone call coupled with a 10 minute report is actually fairly decent pay. You won’t get rich doing these assignments, but that is money that you don’t even have to leave the house to earn.
Other such assignments are more detailed, and they commonly pay in the $30-$50 range, although some pay even more than this. These assignments may have you opening up a credit card account, providing personal information to a bank or insurance company, and more. These are far more time-consuming, but even these will largely not take up even a full hour of your time. So the compensation is also great, provided you are OK releasing personal information as required.
How To Use Them. There generally are not enough phone assignments available to make these a full-time job. Yet to get the most use out of them, you will want to try to sign up for as many of them as you can. Consider the benefits of doing just one of these each day in place of a travel assignment. Over the course of a week, you may end up saving $40, $50, or more in gas money from replacing an on-site assignment with a work-at-home assignment!
So ideally you will want to go through the job boards and look for these assignments first. It is a good idea, given today’s high gas prices, for you to fill your schedule as much as possible with assignments that you can do without any travel cost. After you have looked at all of the at-home assignments, you can then consider filling up the rest of your schedule with assignments that are located as close to home as possible.
Phone assignments are a great way to beat the challenge of rising gas prices. Take some time today to review the job boards and sign up for these at-home money-making opportunities.
Keep in mind the time difference between where you live versus where you are calling. Living on the east coast, I find that many can’t be done in the morning before going out on the road as that part of the country is still asleep. On the other end when I get home businesses in my time zone and the next one over are closed. They sound great and can be if you work at it, but personally I find they don’t work for me. Another issue is I take 10 shops but they have to be done at certain times on certain dates, but this isn’t revealed until after the assignment is accepted. I am working more toward assignments that repeat giving me a schedule of sorts. Therefore phone shops don’t work.
Good luck to those of you they do work for. They are good money as a general rule once you get the “hang” of them.
I love to do phone shops they are my favorite. I just can not find all the companies that offer them. If anyone knows please let me know who they are.