I live in a very rural area, which has both pluses and minuses. The plus side is there are very few shoppers around, the minus is I have to drive a lot more than I'm sure urban shoppers have to. Often, some company will reach out and ask me to travel somewhere and they will pay extra for mileage. Do you just request the standard IRS rate, or do you ask for more, considering it is taking a lot of time too? I just never really know what to request, so I just let them sit most of the time. TIA for any help with this.

I usually figure out what the drive time to and from the shop is along with the mileage. My car gets about 30 mpg. So I calculate how much time I'm driving and arrive at a number that pays me an hourly fee that I find acceptable for that time.

Then I determine how much gas I have to use and add that into the equation. Then I add in an additional amount I feel is acceptable to ME for wear and tear on my car.

If the MSC won't meet my price, I don't do the shop. Sometimes, they turn me down and come back later and accept my price when they are desperate.

Standard IRS mileage does not include your drive time. I would also consider whether the shop is interesting to me, whether the report is bothersome or lengthy and whether I can add other shops to the route to maximize profit. So, in the end, you have to decide what works for you. There are no wrong answers. If your offer is too high, they will let you know. Then, if you want, go lower. Some apply a lot of pressure to get shoppers to accept the lowest fees. Don't let them cajole you into a fee you are not comfortable with. And you do not have to justify the amount you ask for. You do you! Good luck to you!

Everyone's price is different. I don't do this to make money, but I don't sell myself short either. For me, anything I do for less than $15 pay is a waste of my time even if it takes 5 minutes. I won't do phone call shops for $4 or whatever crap pay is being offered. I just did a new restaurant shop and went in the hole for $15, but I think of that as, if I went there on my own, I would have been in the hole $55 and it was an easier report. So the food benefit and the pay was justified for the effort involved. I don't need the money from shopping, but am not going to waste my time with shops that don't fairly compensate me for the time and money. If you have been shopping for awhile, you should easily see fees rise during the month as schedulers need to fill shops. If you have less competition in your area, the fees you get for your local shops will be higher than people in heavily populated areas with a mass of shoppers. The tradeoff, is you have less opportunities to shop than someone in a big city.

I would say, watch the shopboards and get a feel for the high point of the pay for the shops and wait it out until it reaches the point you want.

Because I live in Southern California, I base my shopping on where I will be and what I will be doing and if there is something there than can be done that meets the amount of money that I feel is "reasonable." I won't do shops for ACL or anyone else that thinks they can only feed me and NOT pay me. I used to do some many years ago when I was not in the financial position I am in now. Now, I value my time more.

A buddy of mine shops as well. He thinks that if he works 40 hours per week at a regular job, then your mystery shopping is like overtime. You are working beyond the 40 hours. So the pay needs to meet 1.5 times your hourly rate for it to be worth it to him. I can agree with that to a point, but because my hourly rate is quite high, I would never do any shops if I had to measure it by 1.5 times that.

I agree with wrosie. I use the IRS mileage rate ($0.585) plus the drive time x an hourly rate. .

I use anywhere from $10 to $20 an hour based on total time for driving plus shop and report and add a amount for gas/mileage/wear and tear on vehicle. 56 cents to $1 a mile seems fair. Ex 2 hour round trip 45 min shop 15 min report. I would charge $30 to $60 plus mileage cost. If you can find other shops in the area you can spread the mileage cost out over the shops.

Definitely factor your driving time into the equation. I would also make sure to actually put in your address and get the mileage and estimated time by the driving directions. I see a lot of shops that show they are, say 9 miles from me, but that would be if I could get in a plane and fly there. When it comes to the actual driving, it can be 14-15 miles. I learned that lesson the hard way on a few shops! Thought something was 30 miles away but actual road driving was 46.