Guest Post: Mystery Shopping

This is a guest post by my reader Laura who earned $230 by Mystery Shopping in February!

I’ve been a mystery shopper for several months now and wanted to share a few tips about how to add extra money to your “fund” or to your income! Mystery shopping is a great way to earn gift cards to places you visit often, enjoy reimbursed meals, and receive payment for eating out or visiting a store! Over the month of February, I earned $70 in gift cards to my regular grocery store, $40 to a chain restaurant, and $120 in cash! It’s really nice to have extra money rolling in once you get started!

My favorite tips:

1) Join multiple mystery shopping companies, maybe with an email address dedicated just to mystery shopping. You are likely to get several emails a day of available assignments. There are probably going to be some companies that don’t pay enough, don’t have assignments near you, or book up so quickly with people who have been in the system longer than you that you might never work for them. These are my two suggestions: visit http://mspa.jobslinger.com/exec/sfs/jobboard to see what jobs are available in your area, join up with those companies if you’re interested. Also check out http://www.volition.com/mysteryUSA1.html for a list of mystery shopping companies. You also might want to google to see if particular shoppers have had issues getting paid by particular companies. Most do paypal or direct deposit. (Sometimes you might be asked for your SSN. Verify it’s a legit company first). That’s in case you make more than $600 in a year, in which case you’ll need to report for taxes.

2) You’ll make the most money rolling together assignments. I did six assignments on President’s day. They only paid about $10-15 each, but combined, that was a lot of money! It can be a little tedious so I like to space it out.

3) Follow the directions exactly- if you don’t get a receipt, bring a guest when you’re not supposed to, don’t wait the exact amount of time, or order another item, your shop will get rejected! Your first assignments are also really important. If you make a lot of mistakes, that company might not assign to you again.

4) Considering that most of you reading this are willing to work hard and already do surveys and other programs to earn extra cash, mystery shopping has a relatively high payout. On the low end you’ll make $5.00 plus reimbursement for a fast food shop, on the high end you could get family tickets to a major attraction reimbursed. Those big shops will fill up fast, so it might be to your advantage to take on a few smaller shops to have a good reputation in that company’s system, making them more likely to assign you bigger shops in time.

5) You can never reveal yourself as a mystery shopper or take notes while doing the shop. It helps to keep a notebook in your car for jotting down details as soon as you leave, especially if you do several in one day because it can get confusing to keep track! And always keep your receipts for a few months- I’ve been randomly asked to mail one in three weeks after I completed the shop.

Do you have a creative way to make money? If so, please email me!