Most of the MSC's I work with pay through Paypal, a select few pay by direct deposit. I prefer Paypal because I can let the money sit there until I have saved up enough for something that I normally would not have saved for.
A tip I picked up from this forum (I think from Ivan) is when selecting the shop date from a range of available dates, I pick the first or second day of the week, rather than the last day. That allows for any issues on the actual shop date (in case the location is closed, I forgot something, etc), and the schedulers get the shop done as soon as possible. It does seem that since I've been requesting shops this way, I am getting more assigned to me.
Hi Summer,
What MSC's are you signed up with? I am in NL so I won't be taking work away from you, but I'm always searching for companies that operate in Canada.
Check out Amusement Advantage. I've done one phone shop for them, but I know they do everything amusement park-oriented. Depending on where you are you may luck in to something.
I started mystery shopping just before the pandemic. I am in an area where there are minimal opportunities, but right now I am averaging about $1000 per month - I have a pension so that is just good beer money. I started out taking anything available just to get my foot in the door. Now I am selective and rarely will do any shop less than $10, including phone and web shops. I have regular shops that I do, ranging from monthly shops paying $25 for about a 45-minute job, up to a weekly gig of $100 for about a 20-minute phone shop.
ov @ Nov 21, 2021, 3:27:19 PM
I know this question was over a year ago but I'm new to the forum. How could you do 30 shops in one trip? The most I've ever done was 10, with about 8 hours driving and 5 hours of shopping, prepping and writing. BTW- I predetermined how much gas would cost plus my time spent driving, then let my scheduler know. She can usually add enough good bonuses onto some of the shops to make the trip earning worthwhile. I usually go for 5 hours round trip max.
These particular shops took no more than 5 minutes at each location, and the report was via smartphone app that took another 10 minutes at most. Most of the day is spent traveling between shops. I did negotiate a mileage rate of I think it was 45 cents per km (plus I added on extra for my travel time), but our gas prices have since climbed to $1.60 / litre so this would not even come close anymore. Until gas prices drop again, I am not doing any routes unless it is very worth my while.
The km rate was what I used to calculate a total to propose to the scheduler. So I added the KM, the original fees offered, and extra for travel time. I did not need to provide a breakdown to the scheduler, just a total dpllar amount for the entire route. The scheduler was happy to pay what I asked (made me wonder if I asked too low), but these shops were impossible for them to complete otherwise, so it was win-win.