When I make a purchase during a secret shop, do I get to buy anything I want? How will I know how much the mystery shopping company will pay for?

When the mystery shopping company offers the assignment they will let you know if there is a required purchase, if there is a specific item (or items) that must be purchased, and the maximum amount of any reimbursement. Some shop clients will name an item that you must purchase, while others will say to purchase anything you wish. If your purchase amount exceeds the maximum purchase allowance, you will not be reimbursed for anything over the maximum.

Do I have to have a credit card to make purchases on mystery shop assignments, or may I use cash or check?

Most of the time, you may use cash, check or credit card for any required purchase. However, there are times when the shop guidelines will specify the form of payment. That information will usually be in the information provided in the offer of the assignment. One note: When a shop requires a purchase and return, you are usually advised not to pay by check, as they may delay your refund.

Does the mystery shopping company give me money to make the purchase, or do I have to pay out of pocket and wait for the mystery shopping company to pay me back?

In almost every case, you will pay for any required purchase and be reimbursed by the mystery shopping company. There are occasionally shops where you will be provided with gift cards to use on the shop, but those are rare.

Beware of “mystery shops” where you receive checks or money orders for large amounts, with instructions to cash them, shop at one or more local merchants, then wire most of the money to someone (often in a foreign country). These are not mystery shops, they are scams that have nothing to do with mystery shopping. The checks are forgeries, which you will discover sometime after wiring the money.

How long will it take to be reimbursed?

That depends. Most mystery shopping companies describe their pay cycles on their websites. They may say that payment will be made on the 15th of the month for all shops completed in the previous month. Or they may pay every two weeks, or on some other schedule. I recently did a restaurant mystery shop where I was paid less than one week after the shop date, but that is not typical.

Sometimes companies will expedite reimbursements when you must make a large purchase. For example, I did some assignments that required purchases in the thousands of dollars. The company made sure to pay me within a week or two after completing the assignments. I put the purchases on credit cards, and had the cash in hand well before I had to pay the bill.

The exact procedures for mystery shop reimbursements vary, but the secret shopping company will let you know how the reimbursement will work when the shop is offered. If you have any questions, you may contact the mystery shopping company before accepting the assignment.

How would you handle this?

Most of the time, shoppers are paid according to schedule for the mystery shops they complete. If you are not paid when expected, here are the steps you should follow.

First, check when they said you would be paid for the assignment. The mystery shopping company usually states somewhere (on their website, in the assignment email, etc.) when payments will be issued.

The time can vary, depending on their pay cycle and when the shop was completed. For example, if they pay around the 20th of the month following when the shop was done, and you did the shop on the 2nd, it could easily be seven or eight weeks before you get paid. This information is usually in the shop offer.

If they are past the time when they are supposed to pay, start with your first contact (usually your scheduler). If you do not receive an answer or at least some indication that they are looking into it, or have taken some action, move up the chain of command. See if you can locate other contacts at their website and email or call them. Let them know about any previous contacts/correspondence.

If you still can’t get an answer, and the company is a member of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, let MSPA know. Although they can not resolve individual situations between shoppers and companies, if they see a pattern of late payments from a company they will contact the company to find out what it going on and may go so far as to suspend or terminate the company’s membership.

Beyond that, there isn’t a lot you can do. You can report them to the Better Business Bureau, but that doesn’t get your money. You can sue them in small claims court, but even if you win, you still have to collect. (And the filing fee may be almost as much as they owe you.)

I certainly wouldn’t do any more shops for them if they are late in paying, at least until this is resolved.

In this case, they say they are investigating so keep following up to get your reimbursement. If you can’t get an answer from your scheduler, move up a level and keep moving it up. Also check that your information is correct. If they pay with PayPal and they have an email address for you that is incorrect or not associated with your PayPal account, the money goes into “limbo” until someone can figure out where it belongs. The same would apply if they pay by check and your mailing address is incorrect.

Each company has their own methods they use to pay secret shoppers. Some offer options, so shoppers can choose, perhaps between direct deposit and a mailed check, while others have a “one size fits all” approach.

The mystery shopping company will tell you at the time you apply how they issue payments. Here are the most common choices:

Check. This was the standard payment method for many years, and it is still used by many mystery shopping companies. Many shoppers prefer checks—after all, it is always fun finding money in your mailbox! However, although it happens rarely, checks may be lost or stolen. You also have to allow time to receive the check in the mail. If a company says they issue checks on the 15th, it could be a week or longer before the check is in your hands.

Direct deposit. The downside of direct deposit is that you have to give your banking information to the mystery shopping company. Of course, a reputable company will not do anything unethical or illegal with your information, and they will safeguard it to the best of their abilities. Nothing is 100% safe, but many mystery shopping companies have been using direct deposit for years without incident. Only give your banking and other personal information to a company you know to be legitimate and reputable.

PayPal. Some companies have converted to paying exclusively through PayPal. Receiving payments via PayPal is free and easy. Fees are paid by the companies, using PayPal’s Mass Pay feature. Shoppers can withdraw money from their PayPal accounts with no fees by transferring it to a bank account, using the PayPal debit card, or using funds from the account to make a purchase from a merchant who accepts PayPal. There is a fee if PayPal mails a check to you.

One new wrinkle is the use of gift cards to pay shoppers. Some clients are choosing to provide gift cards instead of a cash reimbursement. This may be acceptable, but not in all situations. See this post about mystery shopper pay and gift cards for a discussion of the pros and cons.

Each mystery shopping company makes choices about how they will pay shoppers based in part on shopper preference, but also on what works most effectively for the company. If you are uncomfortable with a mystery shopping company’s method of payment, you can choose not to work with them. There are many mystery shopping companies using each payment method described here.

Question from a mystery shopper:

In some recent articles, you talked about getting reimbursed for things you purchased on a mystery shop. I would like to be a mystery shopper, but I am a little nervous about putting out my own money then waiting (and hoping) to get reimbursed.

How long does it take to get reimbursed for mystery shopping expenses? Should I be worried about not getting paid? How much money will I have tied up in this, and for how long?

If you are working for a legitimate mystery shopping company, you will usually receive your reimbursement (as well as any fees payable for the mystery shopper job) within two to six weeks. However, if you do not follow the shop guidelines and the client will not accept the report, you will probably not be paid. When you read and follow the guidelines, you should not have a problem getting paid. (Beware: The people who send you a check for thousands of dollars and tell you to wire money somewhere are trying to scam you. Do not fall for a mystery shopper scam.)

Waiting two to six weeks for your reimbursement may seem like a long time, but keep in mind that when you are just getting started you probably will not get a lot of assignments, and most of them will not involve large purchases.

As you start getting paid for your initial assignments, the fees can help fund your expenses for the next round of shops. Here is what I mean:

In the first month, you do six fast food shops. Each one reimburses a food purchase of $6 and pays a fee of $8. If you made the maximum purchase for each secret shop, you are out of pocket $36. Over the next two weeks, you do three retail shops that pay a fee of $12 and require a small purchase. The purchases are not reimbursed separately, and the $12 fee is meant to cover both your fee and the purchase. At each of the three retail shops you spend $4, so you are out of pocket another $12.

In your first six weeks of shopping, you have paid $48 for required purchases. Somewhere around that time, you get paid for the first round of shops: $36 for the reimbursements and $48 for the fees for a total of $84. Your cash flow is now positive and you have not even been paid for the second round of shops yet.

This is only an example. Your actual experience may be different; however, it is rare for a brand new mystery shopper to get assignments with large purchase reimbursements. One reason is that those shops may be more complex than low-end mystery shopper jobs, so the company wants experienced shoppers. High-end shops are often given as rewards to experienced shoppers who have proven they do good work, or who have helped out with last-minute shops and other emergencies. Also, the mystery shopping company does not want new shoppers putting out a lot of money only to find that they did not complete the shop correctly and they will not be paid.

Still nervous? Here are a few things you can do to protect yourself and your cash flow:

For your first assignments, focus on fee-only shops, such as apartments, banks, car dealerships, purchase-and-return retail shops, etc. That way you will not have any cash at risk.

When you do start taking on shops with reimbursements, only choose those you can afford to front the cash for. If you don’t have the money, or will have to pay interest on it, don’t accept the shop. Once you have been mystery shopping for a while you can use the payments you receive to fund required purchases so you can take more shops, or those with larger reimbursed purchases.

When you accept an assignment, make sure you follow all of the guidelines. That means doing the shop on the right day, at the right time and in the right place. It also means getting all of the information you will need to complete the report, writing a thorough and accurate report, and submitting the report on or before the deadline.

Consider using a credit card for expenses, if allowed by the shop guidelines. Use a card where you are not carrying a balance so that interest does not begin accruing as soon as the charge is made. It is very possible that you will have your reimbursement before the charge is due. Also, if you use a rewards card, the points, miles and cash bonuses will add up over time.

Would it be okay to return the purchase? I still have the original receipt, as the mystery shopping company just had me input the receipt number in my report.

The answer, as is so often the case, is “it depends.”

Some clients do not want shoppers returning merchandise purchased on a mystery shop for a cash refund. Their reasoning is that your compensation was the purchase reimbursement and any fee. If you take cash instead of the purchased merchandise, their costs go up because the wholesale cost of the merchandise is less than the retail value.

Before returning an item purchased on a shop for a cash refund, check the guidelines to see if they say anything about returns. You may also want to ask your scheduler.

Even if the client does not want shoppers to get cash refunds, it would probably be fine to exchange the defective item for one that is not broken. Take the item and your receipt back to the store and do an even exchange for the same item. After all, the reimbursement is part of your compensation, and if you got a defective item you did not receive all of the compensation you are due.

Before you make the exchange, scan or take a digital photograph of your receipt. Even with an exchange, the store may mark the receipt and you should have a clean copy in case the mystery shopping company requests it for some reason.

Some clients are choosing to reimburse mystery shoppers with gift cards, instead of cash. What this means is that you do the mystery shop and pay out of pocket for any required purchase. After your report has been accepted, you are paid with a gift card from the merchant.

Let’s do the math to see if this is a good deal. Here is how it might work:

You go to a restaurant to do a mystery shop and pay $35 for your meal. Several weeks later, you get a $35 gift card in the mail. So you paid $35 and you got $35. All even, right? Well, not exactly. You have to go back to the restaurant to use the gift card. So now you have spent $70: $35 of your own money and the $35 gift card. Plus, you spent some amount of time preparing for the shop and doing the report.

In this circumstance, your mystery shopper pay is more like a “buy one, get one free” coupon than a true reimbursement. If they had reimbursed you in cash, you could take your $35 and go back to the restaurant again, or you could use the money to buy groceries, pay the light bill or whatever you wanted to do with it. Gift cards take away that choice.

But it could be even worse. Some reimbursement maximums are not sufficient to cover the reasonable cost of a meal for two people. In the example above, let’s say that your bill (including tax and tip) was $45. You didn’t splurge, that is just what it costs to eat there. A few weeks later, you get your gift card for $35, and return to the restaurant to use it. Again, you spend $45. Now you have spent $90 and been reimbursed $35.

There are times when I spend more than the maximum reimbursement amount on a restaurant shop. I know going in that it will happen, and we order as we always do (within the shop guidelines, of course). I view the reimbursement as my compensation for the time doing the report, and figure we would have spent the money on dinner somewhere anyway, so I am fine with the deal. However, I would not be so fine if my compensation required me to go back to the restaurant and spend money again.

Are there ever times when being reimbursed with a gift card is a good thing? Sure. It depends on how the reimbursement is structured and the shopper’s preferences. For example, if there is a client you expect to shop on a regular basis, and you may use the gift cards to pay when you do future shops, your cash flow will be improved. Here is what I mean: You do the shop the first month and pay $35. The next month, you return and pay with the gift card you got for the first mystery shop. Repeat monthly. This may be worthwhile if you like having a monthly dinner at that restaurant, or the client is a retail store that carries merchandise you buy regularly.

Another possibility is when there is a standard reimbursement that is more than you would actually spend. In the restaurant example, let’s say that you dine by yourself (if allowed by the guidelines) and spend $20, while still receiving a $35 gift card. You could then return to the restaurant with your spouse, or take someone out to celebrate, with your $35 card. Or you might give the gift card to someone instead of buying them a gift. If this is money you would have spent anyway, this could be a good deal.

Only you can decide if being reimbursed for your secret shopper purchases via gift card is a good deal or not. You may find that, as in the above examples, you are willing to accept these mystery shopper jobs under some circumstances but not others.

What do you think? Have you ever been reimbursed with a gift card? Would you do it again?

I just started mystery shopping, and I have completed two shops this week. Is there an unwritten law about how much you should buy during a shop? My shop fees were $10.00 and $11.50 but there was no given dollar amount for the merchandise I could obtain free from the shops. To be on the safe side I just bought things I could really use in case I was stuck with the bill.

As a brand new shopper who has completed two shops in her first week, you are off to a good start. Here is an explanation of how mystery shoppers get paid.

When an assignment is offered to you, the mystery shopping company should tell you exactly what the compensation will be, including any available reimbursement. For example, they might say that the shop fee is $10.00, and you will be reimbursed for a purchase of up to $20.00. If, in that case, you spent $15.00, you would receive a total of $25.00: the $10.00 fee and reimbursement of the $15.00 you actually spent. In the same scenario, if you spent $25.00, you would receive a total of $30.00: the $10.00 fee and the maximum reimbursement of $20.00.

In most cases, the reimbursement is designed to cover any required purchase. If you are to purchase a specific product or service, the maximum reimbursement should be large enough to cover that purchase. It is a maximum, however, and you may receive less if you spend less than the maximum.

Sometimes there is no reimbursement. That may be because a purchase is not required, or the shop involves both the purchase and return of merchandise.

Some mystery shopping assignments that require a purchase do not include a specific reimbursement. The company may say that the shop fee is $X, and you are required to make a purchase; however, they do not specify what you must purchase and the purchase is not specifically reimbursed. In that case, the fee in intended to cover both the shop fee and reimbursement. You may purchase something that you need and plan to keep, or you may purchase something and return it later (if appropriate).

From your description, it appears that you received a fee for the shop that covers any required purchase. That means that you will not receive additional compensation for any purchases you made.

It is never safe to assume that there will be greater compensation or reimbursement than is specified in the shop offer. If you have any questions about a shop offer, contact the scheduler or other mystery shopping company representative before you accept the shop.

Mystery shopper jobs allow us to earn extra money that can be used to build our savings, or pay down those credit card bills. And, by choosing assignments wisely, we can also get many things for free, or at a reduced price, that we would normally have to pay for.

In my career as a professional shopper, I have been reimbursed for meals, haircuts, eye examinations, dry cleaning, car oil changes, groceries and much more. In addition, by using a rewards credit card for many of my reimbursed purchases, I have received gift cards and other perks from my credit card company.

We can even splurge a little now and then, thanks to mystery shopping.

In the current economy, one of the first things to go from many budgets was eating out at restaurants. If that is an indulgence you hate to give up, mystery shopping may allow you to dine out at least once in a while when you accept restaurant mystery shopper jobs. Although some shops are fast food (hardly an indulgence, but your kids may enjoy the burger), many family, casual dining and fine dining restaurants are also mystery shopped.

There are several mystery shopping companies that specialize in movie theater audits and mystery shops. If going to a first-run movie is no longer in the budget, this may be an opportunity to do so.

Some things are necessary, even if money is tight. Have you been putting off getting your eye examination or buying new glasses? There are secret shops of optometrists and opticians where you may receive a free eye exam and a deep discount on glasses or contacts as part of your compensation.

Mystery shopper jobs that do not include a reimbursement for products or services purchased provide extra cash, something we all can use. These types of shops are available at banks, apartment complexes and new home communities, and some retail stores. (Mystery shops of retail stores may not provide a reimbursement if there is no purchase required or the shop calls for the purchase and return of an item.)

Although you will not get rich as a secret shopper, mystery shopping can be just the answer for making some extra cash, or stretching your dollars to help them go further.

Restaurants are special favorites of mine. My husband and I love to go out to eat, so getting our dinners paid for is nice compensation for the secret shop.

Several years ago, I did a lot of grocery shops where I received a generous reimbursement when buying groceries. I used them to buy my usual groceries and to stock up on non- perishables such as soap and paper products, things I had to buy anyway.

Many mystery shoppers look at these perks and benefits of mystery shopping as getting things ‘free.’ They are not truly free because you earn them with the time you put in doing the shop and report, but they can be good compensation.

The danger is that feeling that you are getting something for nothing can lead you to overspend on mystery shops. When doing a fine dining shop, you may have an allowance of $150 or more. So if you end up going over that amount you may look at it as getting a $180 meal for $30. However, there are some reasons not to overspend on mystery shops.

The first reason is that if you are like most mystery shoppers you are doing this to make money. If you spend more than you earn on every shop you are not making money. Yes, it is nice to get a big discount on things you buy, but even better not to pay anything out of pocket. Keeping your spending in line means that you are not paying to do the mystery shop.

Another reason to avoid going over the reimbursement limit is that being a big spender may take you out of normal customer spending patterns. Many companies will warn against doing things such as ordering the most expensive item on the menu. You do not want to stand out or be memorable, so keep your purchases normal and reasonable.

Mystery shopping is not something for nothing, but it is a great way to get things you want or need in return for your time and effort.

This strategy must be used properly, or it could backfire—big time! Here are the steps you need to take to earn more with reward programs.

Most importantly, you can not carry a balance. That means that you should not use a credit card unless you will pay it off in full, every single month. No exceptions. One month where you pay interest can wipe out all of your reward income. Do not use an existing credit card account if it has a balance on it. One option is to get a credit card specifically for mystery shopping (or a card you use for all purchases when you want to maximize rewards).  Do not charge anything on this card unless you will be able to pay it off on or before the due date.

Choose the right card. Because you are not going to carry a balance on this card, the interest rate is much less important that the rewards you will receive.

Paying a fee for the card means that you need to recover the value of the fee before you profit from your rewards.  Many cards with fees have better rewards, so you should project your expected spending and rewards to determine if it is worthwhile to pay a fee. In most cases, it probably will not be cost-effective to pay a fee for your credit card.

You can compare credit card offers here.

Consider any special offers available.  Do you get double or triple points for certain types of purchases, or purchases from specified merchants? Those bonuses can dramatically increase the value of your rewards. The Chase Freedom card also currently offers a $50 bonus after your first purchase–that looks like a great deal to me.

How can you redeem your points? Are points good for gift cards good at only certain merchants? Is a credit automatically applied to your account? Can you choose from several redemption options? Do you get miles? On what airlines can they be used, and what restrictions exist? After all, if you can not use your points for something you want or need, they do not have value to you.

Using a rewards credit card for reimbursed mystery shopping expenses, or for necessary business expenses, can increase your profits by the amount of your rewards.