Who doesn’t want to see a bigger paycheck for the time and effort you put into mystery shopping? After all, after considering the travel time, time conducting the mystery shop, and your time to complete the report, some assignments pay below the hourly minimum wage. The good news is there are some steps you can take to get the paycheck you are looking for this fall!
Get What You Deserve! Many mystery shoppers have united recently to boycott assignments paying $5 or less. The goal is to get schedulers and providers to realize this low pay is insulting and not worth a mystery shopper’s valuable time and effort.
Every mystery shopper has their own threshold for what is considered acceptable pay. Your threshold may be determined in part by a mix of your family situation, financial situation, location, and the shop requirements. For instance, what is acceptable pay for a single person in Eureka, Kansas may seem insultingly low for a mother of three (who has to take her kids with her on each shop) in Los Angeles, where the cost of living is much higher.
While it’s a good idea for all shoppers to unite firmly against the $5 assignments, you may make the personal decision that an assignment paying below $10 or $15 is not worth your time in general. Or you may consider these only if the assignment appears fairly straightforward and “easy.” To ensure you get the pay you feel you deserve for your efforts, avoid accepting a lower-paying job than what you are comfortable with even in slow times unless you are in desperate need of the cash. If you hold out for another day or two, another better-paying assignment may come along.
It’s Not All About the Shop Pay. It is very easy for a mystery shopper to have blinders on in terms of pay. However, what appears on the surface to be a $10 shop is usually not a $10 shop! How can this be?
The answer is simple. The IRS allows you to deduct the mileage for any business-related travel expense (such as miles traveled to and from a mystery shopping assignment.) All you need to do is keep a small notebook in your car and diligently record the mileage for each assignment you complete. Depending on the miles you travel, taking this very easy extra step can sometimes double (or more) your pay for an assignment.
Where’s My Money? The biggest reason mystery shoppers fail to get paid on completed assignments is a failure to follow the requirements precisely. The bottom line is that you can request and complete all of the mystery shop assignments you are able to get, but you won’t get paid for your work if it is incomplete or shoddy. The best thing you can do to ensure you get paid for the work you do is to read through the requirements carefully before your site visit. If you don’t understand any part of the requirements, don’t be afraid to contact your scheduler and ask. A scheduler would much rather answer questions on the front-end than have to ask you a ton of questions to complete a poorly-done report. Then commit the requirements to memory and be sure you follow them to the “T”.
By following these simple tips, you will enjoy making more money as a mystery shopper in the coming months!
Mystery Shop Maven,
I have to say that this is the only article thus far that doesn’t give me any money-making tips.
Your three bullets:
• Get What You Deserve!
• It’s Not All About the Shop Pay.
• Where’s My Money?,
doesn’t really tell us to how to get the real money. I know there are higher paying shops out there so. . . . . how do we get them?????
If you know how it all works such as; how much does the MS company get paid? how should we be asking for? how much is too much?
I, for one, would like to have a steady stream of shops but find that they sometimes shift to other parts of the country.
I appreciate the advise about the tax writeoff for gas mileage, and we sometimes go above $5 per gallon here in California. I am not always diligent about documenting my mileage and anticipate spending some time on Mapquest to find the mileage from home to destination. If you forgot your mileage, this is a good source for obtaining reliable mileage information.
Regarding the low paying jobs…I took them for the first few months to establish a reputation and a rating. Sort of an internship. It has paid off to a certain extent except I find I really don’t want to do the low paying jobs anymore. The only time I will do them is if there is another shop I am doing in the area away from my home turf and doing the $5 job will reduce the per job cost of gasoline. I always try to smush my jobs together to save on gasoline, my highest job cost. I think the schedulers are beginning to get the idea that a 20 mile drive here can take an hour and the traffic consumes so much of the higher cost gasoline, bumper-to-bumper traffic! I hope all California, especially urban shoppers, drive this point home to the schedulers.
Toward the end of the month I do not schedule jobs until they have a bonus attached for gasoline. I will not go out of area for a single job unless there is a truly significant gasoline bonus attached.
It is only common sense that one would not drive out of their way for a $5 or $10 shop. Those shops should/would typically be done, for instance, when one is on their way home from work and in need of groceries or gas. This would be an excellent opportunity to take advantage of those low paying shops and make it worth your while. I don’t mean to be insulting to anyone, however, use common sense people. If its worth you while, do it! It is not leave it alone, the schedulers will eventually jack up the fee.
I do shops on my way to or from my regular job, college classes, grocery shopping, etc. I NEVER make a special trip unless I’m doing several shops in the same area. I definitely keep track of mileage. At $.59/mile tax write-off, I think I actually make money.
does anyone have the information on the graveyard shopping if you would send it to me i would appreciate it much thanks
Just remember to deduct the cost of the gas and wear and tear on your vehicle before you count the tax deduction. Laugh.
Since I’ve been a member of this group I’ve seen numerous posts about the tax benefits of keeping track of your mileage. So I suppose that everyone else that’s doing this work is making plenty of money at it. The truth is if your income is less than the standard deduction you don’t owe any taxes anyway and any itemized deductions are irrelevant.
Jackie, that is not true. As an independent contractor you fill out the schedule for self-employment with how much you made and enter expenses for mileage, office supplies (paper, ink, pens, dvr, etc) against the income. If you made $1000 shopping, claimed $250 mileage and $150 in office expenses, you only owe taxes on $600 verses $1000. At 15% tax rate you pay $90 verses $150.
Tammy