More On Mystery Shopping

 

A few days ago I talked about making some extra money from becoming a mystery shopper.

A timely post on Wise Bread has the experiences of somebody who has done some mystery shopping:

• Mystery shopping can be tough to get into – higher paying jobs are usually kept for the more experienced shoppers, so it pays to stick at it.
• You can’t earn money if you don’t spend it – many of the jobs you’ll be given will require you to buy items with your own money, to be paid back to you later. This can take some time.
• A successful shop requires an eye for detail – as I mentioned in my previous post, you’ll need to keep your eyes open for everything on your job, so attention to detail is extremely important.
• Payment depends on your performance – if you don’t get the level of detail required, or don’t complete the task correctly, you might not get paid. In short, take the job seriously.
• There are other costs involved – petrol, credit card interest and tips are all costs that might be incurred whilst you mystery shop, and which will probably not be reimbursed.
• You are responsible for your own taxes – as you’ll become a contractor (you’re not directly employed by the mystery shopping companies), you’ll need to sort out any taxes you might need to pay or declare. 
• A reputable mystery shopping company will never ask you for any kind of fee – there are currently some scams doing the rounds trying to get people to pay a fee to get some high paying mystery shopping jobs. Don’t trust these.