I want free clothes and free meals!
Although it is common to get freebies while mystery shopping, freebies aren’t available on all assignments. You are the customer at a store, you pay for the items, and then you get reimbursed. As far as the reimbursement assignments, here’s a list of items that I’ve gotten for free or discounted after my reimbursement.
- Sports drinks and sodas
- Candy bars
- Restaurant meals
- Fast food meals
- A designer sweater
- 2 packs of designer briefs
- A nationalized graduate school entrance exam (results weren’t recorded, but I got the experience!)
- Movies for 2 plus snacks
- Bagel breakfasts, bagel lunches, and bagels to go
- Pizza, both in the restaurant and to-go
- Gas – 1-3 gallons
- An art print
- Oil changes
- $5 discount on groceries
As you can see, I’m not hauling away bags and bags of freebies, like mystery shopping is often portrayed. I didn’t keep track of the time I spent doing the assignments. I did not work full time at it – in fact since the nearest metro area is one hour away, mystery shopping full time is not realistic for me right now. I do take a lot of “last minute assignments” where the MSPs are desperate to get an assignment done, and therefore bonuses are added. In the 2008 tax year, I made about $2,100 in actual pay and got about $1,000 in “free” stuff. That was from April through December with the bulk of the assignments being done late June through December. Most jobs are $5-$35, with only a very few paying out more than that.
They Want My Social Security Number?
Yes, they do. Because if you make $600 or more with one company, they need your SSN to send you the 1099 form. I did work for approximately 20 different companies, but didn’t make more than $600 through any of them individually (you still need to pay your taxes). Many companies require your SSN before you start working for them and others only want it when you’ve reached the $600 mark. This is common practice – obviously for tax purposes.
I don’t get benefits?
No, you don’t. When you work for a company on a per project or per job basis, you’re official title is “Independent Contractor.” You’re not an employee of the company and you don’t get any kind of benefits. They also don’t take taxes out before you get paid – that’s your problem, so you need to keep records! This is similar to being a representative for a direct sales company, for example: Mary Kay “Independent Consultant”, Avon, or Tupperware – you’re not an employee of the company.