Hard credit pulls for shops

Having read that some shoppers pass on very high paying work, due to the credit check, the below is my experience from 01/15/2020.

I was in the loan office approx. 20 minutes, with a report of 1/2 hour; my fee of $175 arrived in 21 days. As for my credit score, it dropped 1.4% then took 4 1/4 months to rebound. Now that is my kind of shop, but, unfortunately, due to the nature of the work, one was limited to a single assignment.

If you meet the criteria for such work, DO NOT be concerned with the hard pull; the temporary drop should not be a problem for anyone.

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I have done MANY such shops and my credit score never wavered by as much as 1 per cent. There is a lot of good money to be made.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
I did a sign up for a credit card shop that was great money. I also needed a better card than I had at the time. My credit score dropped 1 point and returned to normal in 3 months.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
I also have a good credit rating and find the drop in rating does not affect me. I have absolutely no plans to buy or refinance a house or car or apply for a loan. It seems to me these three are the main reasons you might care about a drop in your credit rating. I am sure there may be additional reasons for people with a business.
If you have a lower credit rating however and do at times borrow money then you need to be a bit more careful.
I did one of those $175 investment jobs once different than the loan one shopper bob did. It took forever as the investment guy needed me to speak with his coworker who had other investments to tout and then both of us forgot to validate my parking so I had to get everyone in back of me in line to back out so i could drive back and get validated. Parking gets expensive in my area after a few hours. I never did one of those again. Guess i should look for loan jobs instead.
I recently did a shop comparing loan rate inquiries from 5 lenders. Now I receive constant emails from the different banks/loan companies. I had only to get a quote but not actually apply for the loans. The emails do not have an opt out. For those who have done them, how have you gotten them to go away? So far I just delete each email without reading it but would like to rid myself of them. Any advice?
I mark them as spam and pretty soon AOL automatically diverts them to my spam folder. there, I can delete them quickly, in batches, lol. LOVE my AOL spam controls.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
sandyf, something to consider for future similar shops would be to create a temporary email address just for that shop. That way your normal email address doesn't get abused and once the shop is done you can delete that temporary account.
Thanks, I had not really thought in advance that this would happen. There were only two of the five that asked me for my email address but they all seem to have gotten it somehow. The emails from them are much less annoying than the ones I am getting from some what seems to be newer schedulers who have not yet figured out how to send a list of jobs in one email! The main issue is the lack of an opt out.

@Alan-Texas wrote:

sandyf, something to consider for future similar shops would be to create a temporary email address just for that shop. That way your normal email address doesn't get abused and once the shop is done you can delete that temporary account.
You really shouldn't mark them as spam because when you do that it affects every other shopper. It's an algorithm that sees an address marked as spam and will deliver everybody's email on the same platform as spam. I agree with the above and creating a separate email address or rules. But you don't want to mark mystery shop emails as spam because it will end up blocking them for everyone :-)
We are not talking about marking the mystery shop inquiries as spam. In this case I had to apply to several clients to see what they would charge me for their services. I did this online but now I have those clients sending me daily emails begging for my business.
I really doubt if I join, lets say the Mc Donalds fan club and get sick of getting emails from them and mark them as spam it will become spam for the whole nation of those that use AOL as their email provider. Just picking Mc Donalds out of a hat of companies as an example. I am not mystery shopping for them. If you have some proof that this happens I would be happy to be enlightened.

@foodluvr wrote:

You really shouldn't mark them as spam because when you do that it affects every other shopper. It's an algorithm that sees an address marked as spam and will deliver everybody's email on the same platform as spam. I agree with the above and creating a separate email address or rules. But you don't want to mark mystery shop emails as spam because it will end up blocking them for everyone :-)
@sandyf wrote:

We are not talking about marking the mystery shop inquiries as spam. In this case I had to apply to several clients to see what they would charge me for their services. I did this online but now I have those clients sending me daily emails begging for my business.
I really doubt if I join, lets say the Mc Donalds fan club and get sick of getting emails from them and mark them as spam it will become spam for the whole nation of those that use AOL as their email provider. Just picking Mc Donalds out of a hat of companies as an example. I am not mystery shopping for them. If you have some proof that this happens I would be happy to be enlightened.

@foodluvr wrote:

You really shouldn't mark them as spam because when you do that it affects every other shopper. It's an algorithm that sees an address marked as spam and will deliver everybody's email on the same platform as spam. I agree with the above and creating a separate email address or rules. But you don't want to mark mystery shop emails as spam because it will end up blocking them for everyone :-)

Gotcha!
How do you all check your credit scores to see how they've changed? The free FICO interface in your credit card portal?
Most banks have free access to your credit score if you have an account with them. Just browse their web site.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Wales" suggestion works quite well, BUT, if the scheduler mentions a different procedure, which mine did, DO NOT make my mistake of sending a screen shot of my bank. She kindly responded the client required prospective shoppers to use the site in the guidelines. She could easily have informed me that since I was unable/unwilling to follow directions, the job was being removed from my page; good-bye $175.
shopperbob, if we are talking about the same msc, I have been informed many times that i must use their choice of company to prove my credit score. You can look it up where ever you choose but the one used for them has to be the same company by every shopper. My scheduler is quite nice so try emailing her and apologizing and perhaps you can save the day.
Sandyf,

My shop occurred a few years back and I was able, with the kind assistance of the scheduler, to save the day.
That MSC is known for great scheduling staff who are very helpful.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
Maybe you're experience was the impetus for them making it clear that you need to use their choice of credit score company now. Thanks for that bob.

@shopperbob wrote:

Sandyf,

My shop occurred a few years back and I was able, with the kind assistance of the scheduler, to save the day.
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