Much less intense than an apartment shop and higher paying too!

I look with complete envy and jealousy at those who can speak a foreign language that fits certain bank shops. My oh my! I've seen $200+ fees for doing a bank shop in a foreign language.

I think we have to define how everyone counts their earnings. If you consider reimbursements on dining shops, it would be easy to do $1200/month ($14,000 per year). But I personally, in fifteen years of shopping, have only done $1200/month in fees a few times. I don't see a lot of $25 shops; wish I was finding more of those because I definitely need the $$ right now! Once in a while I get a $25 car shop, but not too often. Banks are generally $15 - $20.

I used to make far more than than by doing a repeat route. It mostly consisted of gas stations, a set route of fast food places known for clucks and headed to the border. I also did casinos (those were fun). I also made routes out of town (usually 1-3 hours from my home in that metro area) where i got bonus or travel premiums much higher than same shops within the city. I have now found said opportunities are not as available (plus I relocated elsewhere) as well as other options provide a more steady and less time/travel income. But it was fun when I did it. I got to travel most of the state of New Mexico and Texas at that time.

Maybe there is an advantage to live in a small city. There are not many shoppers.
Besides gas, do you take into consideration the travel time, especially for low pay shops?

@EileenS wrote:

I think we have to define how everyone counts their earnings.

I think that definitions for this already exist (net vs. gross)...we just need shoppers to utilize them!

Net refers to the amount remaining on earnings after certain adjustments have been made for debts, deductions or expenses. Gross income in this case is the total for all fees paid out (not including reimbursements). Reimbursement are just that. They can be used to offset and income and are helpful, but are specifically NOT income.

Earning $1,000 gross monthly is not as impressive if your expenses are $600. For that matter, earning $1,200 a month in dining reimbursements is not as impressive unless you are saving $1,200 from what you would normally spend. If you normally spend $200 per month dining out but then spend more because you get to shop high-end restaurants, your realistic income offset is only around $200 + whatever income tax you would owe on that.

I never count the gas, because the miles are tax deductible. I have been a full time Mystery shopper for 7 years. Last year I wrote of $22,000 off my taxes for business use of car. Then there is the home office deduction and supplies, etc. A full time shopper can write off $30,000 of taxes. I do about $10,000 a year in lunch/dinner shops which cuts down on the food bill. For people doing this on a full time basis, the key is to start small and then to do good work and then go for quality versus quantity. I could work 7 days a week, but feel that the lower paying shops are not worth the time, unless I am driving past them on the way to other shops. I try not to do shops under $15-$20 and have done shop for $200. Bank shops that require refinancing or mortgage inquiries pay a lot. I have done high end shops that pay up to $100. I had a week of luxury watch shops that paid $50 each for 9 of them. Last year I took 8 weeks of vacation and was paid to do it. An experienced shopper in a populated area that wants to work full time can make over $25,000 a year and get the meals and too. Also, they can pay no tax on that, because of all the legitimate deductions. Sign up for every company you can and build a route, which includes errands that you do,while you drive down the road to your shops. I love the freedom of not having a 9-5 job in an office. I can chose my work and work when I want. One can learn a lot from these forums and decide if they like full or part time work. Where you live and how much time you have matters.

You might have to open a business account with Bank of America or Wells Fargo for $1,000, however for their personal savings account or checking accounts these can be opened for $25.00 and closed within 14 days.

I'm fairly certain I didn't have to deposit anything close to $1000 to open my WF business account.

Sounds good. You must live in a large city with many large businesses. Where I live I've never seen shops that pay $200, not even $100.

If you do Supermarket (or any other shop) as a "Mystery shopper" you may consider the "compensation" the MSC pays as a discount on your grocery order but you have to be going to the location to do your "personal shopping" to justify the effort and expense of gas.unless you are being paid properly for your time and out of pocket expenses.

The supermarkets in my neck of the woods have been paying $7.50 for the past 10 years. You could get two bags of food tor $7.50. Ten years later, this year, you are lucky if you fill one bag for $7.50.. I am there anyway, may as well get the bag of food. or my shop would be invalidated.

The supermarket does not pay you in money, you must shop and buy $7.50 , which costs the MSC about $5.00 for the report.. You may do the shop if you were going shopping. The extra bag of food cost you nothing but the time it takes to ask a few questions and do a report.

Do not try to put this on your list of shops. The bag of food, according to an IRS auditor, is "tools" the MSC requires you buy as the shop would be invalidated if you did not buy those items. Other auditors may consider it "compensation". and he may have also If the supermarket did not require that you buy the food to evaluate the cashier and just paid you the $7.50 fee you can spend the $7.50 anywhere, it would be a shop that had to be reported. because you were paid $7.50.

The auditor said I had a business as other shops offered fees and I incurred legitimate expenses. Another auditor may have the OPINION that I had a "hobby" and my expenses did not justify the criteria for a real business, it was only a "HOBBY" Those "judgment calls" are up to the individual auditor reviewing the case.
You can not have a business loss year after year and take the expenses as losses.

You said "Shoppers were paid around $14 per hour and taxes were taken out from that. So I was lucky to make $1,000 a month as a part-time (18-22 hour) employee, or slightly more when I volunteered for distant stores to paid my mileage reimbursements."

Divide your alleged hourly wage. of $1000 a month by 18 or 22 hours. If you worked $18 hours at $14 an hour you should have been paid $252 before taxes. If you worked 22 hours at $14 hours you would have been paid $308 for 22 hours. NOT $1,000.

This is why clients take advantage of mystery shoppers. Mystery shoppers can not get a calculator out and figure the real compensation for the job or the value of their time and other expense.

If you are passing a convenience store on your way to the beach and stop in for a sandwich that will be paid by the MSC and you will also be paid a fee (which will pay for your gas) you were going to the beach anyway so you can stop and get your sandwich and beverage and use the fee for gas. You must declare that FEE/ INCOME but not the sandwich as the shop would have been invalidated if I did not purchase the sandwich, it was a "tool" I must buy. It is like bending over and finding a $10 or $20 bill on the sidewalk. Instead of.doing a crossword puzzle at the beach while you lay under the umbrella do the report. it pays better than crossword puzzles.

Is this a business or a Hobby? You did not pay to go to the beach, an MSC paid you to go to the beach. You got your money still in your wallet when the MSC reimburses you and pays you the fee (and if you are sharp you may ask the MSC for a little money for gas. That is an expense but mileage only to the convenience store, NOT to the beach.

Of course I do other shops but Mystery Shopping is a business. You did not make $1000 for 18 or 22 hours as an employee. Being part time you probably did not get any benefits as grocery stores work employees part time to avoid paying benefits except for full time managers and office employees. .

@Piled Hip Deep wrote:

You said "Shoppers were paid around $14 per hour and taxes were taken out from that. So I was lucky to make $1,000 a month as a part-time (18-22 hour) employee, or slightly more when I volunteered for distant stores to paid my mileage reimbursements."

Divide your alleged hourly wage. of $1000 a month by 18 or 22 hours. If you worked $18 hours at $14 an hour you should have been paid $252 before taxes. If you worked 22 hours at $14 hours you would have been paid $308 for 22 hours. NOT $1,000.

This is why clients take advantage of mystery shoppers. Mystery shoppers can not get a calculator out and figure the real compensation for the job or the value of their time and other expense.

I think you misunderstood my post, PHD. I worked 18-22 hours a week, which sometimes earned me $1,000 over month, since the topic was earning $1,000 per month. Work hours are usually quoted as weekly...not monthly. Four weeks at 18 hours per is $1,080 gross, but since taxes were taken out, I would have to make up the difference with extra shops or longer driving distances to net $1,000 monthly.

This was not a case of being compensated a flat fee for an assignment. As an employee, I 'clocked in' when I parked at the first grocery store and 'clocked out' when I finished the last shop. The computer software kept track of when I was logged in and entering reports, and I was paid for that time as well. The compensation was a very specific amount. The issue that made it a bad deal was that very few, if any, of the groceries were reimbursed, so I essentially spend much of my workday doing minimal grocery shopping for my household with no reimbursement for the home office I provided. Once I deducted the cost of my commute and unreimbursed food from my paycheck, very little was left.

What's the most money you guys have every made on a SINGLE shop?

Has anyone seen a $1,000 shop?!!

Including reimbursements there are a few people on here who have probably had shops 10-15x that. If I'm not mistaken the most I've ever been paid (fee only) for a shop was $250. The most I've ever had total (fee + reimbursement) is around $700.

I once did a rather complex mortgage shop with many lender contacts and a whole fake persona including an SSN that had been "planted" in the lender's data system to protect me. Paid over $350, which was more than fair for the easy reporting and minimal time spent on each interaction. That was fun, and we (The client) caught some serious violations of consumer credit protections by the local lender (client) staff. I would do that again in a heartbeat. That was one of those cases of a client investing in complex MS work to avoid huge fines if the feds had been the ones to find the culprits in the client's organization.

I was also paid $250 plus a nice travel allowance to travel to do a NYC co-op unit sale in the $2 million range. The developer apparently had reason to believe that the sales staff on site were "assuring" prospects that "certain kinds of people" would not be allowed to buy into that building. The client was very right.

Closer to home $200 for a new condo video shop was quite recent.

However, any shopper looking for these types of MS assignments had better establish a very good track record with more ordinary shops first.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2017 05:01PM by walesmaven.

I make $150 doing video shops. These are new home shops.
I do about 6 a month plus other work

Most of my hotel shops are over $1,000 in reimbursement.

I once had a hotel with a $600 fee but it wasn't posted with that fee. It was a complex assignment that required both evaluators to write different narratives based on their individual experiences, and I negotiated the fee. I guess it was more like $300 per person in that case, but I ended up doing all the writing and my GF just dictated to me, so I kept the fee and she got a vacation out of it....

$1000 fee for opening a credit card over the phone. 17 minute shop.
Paid in 2 weeks by direct deposit.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2017 07:02PM by SoCalMama.

It isn't hard to make $1000 in fees and reimbursements. However, shopping pays approximately $4.00/hour after all expenses and taxes are accounted for. You'll work 250 hours per month. Some shopper might average $8/hour, and make $2000/month. Maybe a handful occasionally earn $12/hour and make $3000/month.

I was probably the most successful gas station auditor for a single year. All of my travel to interesting places in the southwestern US was paid for by gas station audits, and all of my junk food was paid for by Market Force.

However, I slept in my SUV at Walmarts, rest areas and the side of dirt roads, had no social life, and at the end of the month, only had $3000. And the fatigue and boredom of doing these shops will get to anyone.

But shopping got me through some hard times, until I lucked out and found a great paying job/career.

@Big Time Shopper wrote:

It isn't hard to make $1000 in fees and reimbursements. However, shopping pays approximately $4.00/hour after all expenses and taxes are accounted for. You'll work 250 hours per month. Some shopper might average $8/hour, and make $2000/month. Maybe a handful occasionally earn $12/hour and make $3000/month.

I was probably the most successful gas station auditor for a single year. All of my travel to interesting places in the southwestern US was paid for by gas station audits, and all of my junk food was paid for by Market Force.

However, I slept in my SUV at Walmarts, rest areas and the side of dirt roads, had no social life, and at the end of the month, only had $3000. And the fatigue and boredom of doing these shops will get to anyone.

But shopping got me through some hard times, until I lucked out and found a great paying job/career.

I can assure you that plenty of us net far more than the hourly rates you have quoted, even after taking taxes and expenses into consideration. It depends largely on how much competition there is in a certain area.

I wasn't sure where to post this question, so I thought I'd ask here.

I have tried to ask for a fee increase for the first time ever in my brief ms-ing career. I decided to make the request with two companies and one replied within a day telling me no.

The other has yet to reply over the course of several days. I'm wondering what's the longest you've had to wait to hear back from a bonus or fee increase request? Do you ever try to ask again if you don't hear back or do would you just assume they are telling you no without actually saying no?

Sometimes they just never do.
I find it quite annoying but part of life.

,

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2017 12:51AM by Miss shopper.

@SoCalMama wrote:

$1000 fee for opening a credit card over the phone. 17 minute shop.
Paid in 2 weeks by direct deposit.

$1000 for opening a credit card?? Wow. never heard of that.
Not to seem rude, but you are the only one gets paid such high fees, and it's hard to believe.

@Miss shopper wrote:

but you are the only one gets paid such high fees

I'm going to have to disagree.

Since when is SoCalMama the only one to get paid outrageously high fees? I just deleted a credit card opening shop for the base fee of $250 so a grand is totally believable.

I've met her; I believe her! She's a top-notch shopper.

@LisaSTL wrote:

Since when is SoCalMama the only one to get paid outrageously high fees? I just deleted a credit card opening shop for the base fee of $250 so a grand is totally believable.

Not sure what you meant by "base fee". I heard of shopper fee of $200-260 for a credit card opening, but not a $1000. We are talking about the shopper fees here, aren't we?