Earn Extra Cash as a Mystery Shopper

Nick Making Money 5 Comments

If you enjoy going shopping, here’s a great opportunity to get paid for doing it!

In today’s competitive business environment, retailers are desperate to ensure that their shops and other outlets provide the best possible service to consumers.

To check this is the case, many now use mystery shoppers. These people visit stores anonymously – as ordinary customers, in other words – and report back on what they find. As well as physical stores, mystery shoppers evaluate websites and telephone services too.

Mystery shoppers are generally hired by specialist agencies rather than companies themselves. As a mystery shopper you will work for the agency on a self-employed basis and report back to them. The agency will pay you and (in most cases) reimburse the cost of any purchases.

This is a great opportunity for retired and semi-retired people who have some time available during the day. The work is generally interesting and enjoyable, and as well as being paid you will get a bit of fresh air and exercise as well!

Typical Tasks

Mystery shopping tasks are incredibly varied, but here are some typical assignments you may be asked to perform.

• Visit a fast-food restaurant and order a meal. Time how long your order takes to arrive, check that the condiments area is well stocked, and visit the toilets to check for cleanliness.
• Visit an electrical store and see how long it takes for a staff member to acknowledge you. Ask them about the different types of appliance they sell, rating their helpfulness and product knowledge.
• Phone up a hotel and book an overnight stay, noting how easy the process is and how well the receptionist answers your queries. At the hotel evaluate the service you receive, how clean and comfortable your room is, the quality of meals, and so on.

Getting Paid

Payment rates vary, but you shouldn’t expect to earn a fortune. Although a few people do this as a full-time job, mystery shopping is best regarded as an enjoyable money-making sideline.

For a basic mystery shopping job that takes maybe 20 minutes to complete, you could expect to earn in the region of £8 to £12. Travel expenses may be paid on top of this (although by no means always).

• One thing to bear in mind is that mystery shopping assignments often require you to make a purchase. This will normally be reimbursed, but the money may take several weeks to arrive. So if you can’t afford to be out of pocket during this time, this opportunity may not be for you.

In some cases, rather than a fee you may be offered a free or discounted product or service – a meal at a restaurant, for example. It’s up to you whether to accept such assignments. Obviously, a free meal at a nice restaurant is appealing, but you won’t make any money doing this type of job.

Where to Find Work

Mystery shopping is huge nowadays, and there are hundreds of mystery shopping agencies in the UK alone.

One leading company that works on behalf of many high street stores is Market Force. My fellow money blogger Emma Drew, a highly experienced mystery shopper, recommends Market Force as the first agency people starting out in this field should join.

To become a Market Force mystery shopper, visit their website and click on Register. You will be asked to enter some personal details and complete a short test of your spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Assuming you pass this – and it’s not exactly rocket science – you will be able to download their free app and start finding work near you. Then it’s just a matter of doing the jobs, filing your reports, and getting paid!

Some other mystery shopping agencies I have heard good reports about include Grassroots, Red Wigwam and Retail Maxim.

More Tips

Here are a few more tips for would-be mystery shoppers.

• When you apply to mystery shopping agencies, they often ask you to write down why you think you would make a good mystery shopper. Saving this for your next application will save time in future.
• Be sure to read any brief you receive carefully and fulfil the terms to the letter. This way you will avoid disasters, e.g. going to a shop on Monday and subsequently discovering you were required to visit at the weekend.
• Try to schedule more than one assignment per day. If you’re making a trip across town for a mystery shop, check to see if there are any other shops nearby that also require visits.
• Set aside time to make notes as soon as possible after completing an assignment, while the experience is still fresh in your mind. The more useful details you can provide, the better clients will rate you.
• Don’t talk about your assignments. Most, if not all, mystery shopping agencies don’t allow you to mention their clients.

As mentioned earlier, for most people mystery shopping will be an enjoyable money-making sideline, but you can also save a lot of money on leisure activities by this means.

Mystery shoppers are also hired to assess hotels, restaurants, airlines, package holidays and even cruises – so if you enjoy travelling and eating out, you can save hundreds or even thousands of pounds on these activities. Naturally there’s a lot of competition for the most desirable assignments. Someone has to do them, though, and there’s no reason why it couldn’t be you!

If you have any comments or questions about this post or mystery shopping generally, as always, feel free to post them below.

Twelve Great Sideline Earning Opportunities for Over-50s from UK Money Bloggers

Nick Making Money 6 Comments

Today I’m sharing a selection of posts from my fellow UK Money Bloggers. These are all sideline-earning opportunities that may appeal to older people. Of course, most are suitable for younger people as well!

1. Dog Boarding

This is a guest post by Francesca Mason on the Wiser Wealthier blog by Carl Lincoln. Dog boarding (and walking) is an unusual sideline, but getting started is easier than you think, and you will get plenty of healthy exercise too!

2. Mystery Shopping

This is a post by Pete Chatfield on his Household Money Saving blog. Mystery shopping is a popular sideline that may appeal especially to retired and semi-retired people with time available during the day. Pete’s post focuses on one of the better paying companies in this field called GFK.

3. Fiverr

This post by Kerry Marriott on her Money Saving Journeys blog reveals how you can make money offering ‘gigs’ on the popular Fiverr website. There are lots of possibilities for things you can do, and you can download a free Gig Planner worksheet via the blog.

4. Task Apps

Kaya La Roche wrote about this on her Earning by the Sea blog. The post describes a number of free apps you can download to your smartphone. Tasks are advertised via the apps – anything from photographing phone boxes to checking prices in a supermarket – and you receive a fee for each one you complete.

5. Get Paid to Shop

This post by Olly Cator on his Savvy Dad blog also features a smartphone app. It’s called Shopmium and can help you save money on groceries or even get them free. You get cashback on selected purchases, and can also make money introducing friends and family.

6. Ebay Buying and Selling

This post by Michelle Bailey on her Time and Pence blog provides a good overview of the various ways you can make money buying and selling on the world’s favourite online auction site. You can start off by selling things around your home that you no longer need.

7. Flower Arranging

This is another post by Michelle Bailey on Time and Pence. Flower arranging is an unusual sideline but it’s not a hard skill to learn and there are lots of potential outlets for your work. This could even become a full-time job if that’s what you want.

8. Blogging

And here’s a third post from Michelle Bailey on Time and Pence. Blogging can be a great home-based sideline for older people. It’s cheap and easy to get started, and you can easily fit it in around your other activities and commitments.

9. Prolific Academic

This is a post by Elle Finlay on her EL Feelgoods Vintage blog. Prolific Academic is a website that recruits people to take part in online academic studies and pays them for doing so. I am a big fan of Prolific Academic myself and have also written a blog post about them.

10. Selling Stories to Women’s Magazines

In this post on her Savvy in Somerset blog, Fiona Elizabeth Hawkes discusses a range of ways you may be able to make money from women’s magazines, from submitting true stories about dramatic things that have happened in your life to household hints!

11. Selling Items Around Your Home

This is another post by Fiona Elizabeth Hawkes on her Savvy in Somerset blog. In it she reveals some surprising items you may have lying around at home that could fetch a good price on online auction sites or local Facebook pages.

12. Working as an Extra

This is another post by Pete Chatfield on his Household Money Saving blog (see 2, above). It’s another one I have done myself (and posted about on Pounds and Sense). Working as a TV or movie extra can be a lot of fun, and while you won’t get rich the pay isn’t bad either. This is another good opportunity for people who are retired or semi-retired, or perhaps who are self-employed and can arrange their schedule around filming.

I will take the opportunity as well to mention my post on Pounds and Sense last year about Viewber. This company is still actively seeking people to assist local estate agents by conducting viewings when their own staff aren’t available. They pay at least £20 per viewing, plus travel expenses. Older people are especially welcome, and you don’t need to have any estate agency experience.

Thank you to my fellow UK Money Bloggers who submitted posts for inclusion in this round-up, and sorry I wasn’t able to use them all.

I do hope you enjoy exploring the links above and they inspire you to try out some new money-making sidelines in 2018!

If you have any comments or questions, as ever, please do leave them below.

Earn a Sideline Income with People for Research

Nick Making Money 8 Comments

If you’ve spent any time at all looking online for sideline-earning opportunities, chances are you’ll have come across survey sites.

Unfortunately, you may also have discovered that many are a waste of time. So-called short surveys can end up taking over half an hour and pay the princely sum of 20p. No wonder many people get disillusioned and decide they aren’t worth the time and effort.

Well, here’s one website that definitely is. People for Research is constantly recruiting people to take part in consumer research studies. Some of these take place in large cities (London and Bristol especially) but many others are done remotely via the phone and/or the internet.

The studies cover a huge range of topics and are for the most part interesting and enjoyable. But the best thing is that they are fairly (and sometimes generously) recompensed – usually in cash, though sometimes in Amazon vouchers.

An Example

Here’s a study I took part in myself just a few weeks ago. All I knew beforehand was that it was something to do with ‘culture’. I had to complete a few screening questions and obviously passed, as I was emailed an invitation to take part.

The study was done remotely over the internet. I had to download a special meetings app called Zoom to my smartphone.

At the appointed hour I made contact with the researcher. Using the app he took me to a cinema website, and I had to perform various tasks on it, including checking the cinema’s location and finding out what films were currently showing. Then I had to book tickets (not giving my actual credit card details, obviously).

The researcher asked me to talk through what I was doing. He could see via the app how I was navigating the site and any problems I was having. All of this will presumably be fed back to the client in the interest of making their website as user-friendly as possible.

The study was fun to do and took about 30 minutes. Afterwards I sent my bank details as instructed and received my £30 fee literally the day after. That’s a rate of £60 an hour, which is more than I get for most of my freelance work!

Longer Studies

As mentioned, the studies vary widely, and sometimes involve participating over a period of several days or longer, e.g. keeping a written and/or video diary. A recent example was a study on cheese. On the website it said:

‘For this study, you will be required to make a 5-minute video each day for the duration of the study (5 days total). In this video, you will first need to state what meal you are going to make and how you are using the cheese. We’ll also want to know what other cheese brand you are replacing this one with, if applicable! After the meal, you will review it and state how it tasted, whether your family enjoyed it and any other comments you would like to add.’

For this interesting and enjoyable task, which was open UK-wide, a fee of £110 was on offer. The study in question is now closed, but new ones are being launched all the time, so it’s worth checking back regularly.

Even if there is nothing you currently want to apply for, it’s still worth taking a few moments to register on the People for Research website. You will then be notified by email when new opportunities are posted.

Top Tips

Finally, here are a few more tips on making the most of People for Research, based on my experiences with them.

• Don’t expect to be accepted for every study you apply for. There are generally screening questions to answer and only people who match the profile required are invited to take part. There are plenty of new studies coming along all the time, so don’t be disappointed if you aren’t accepted for some of them.
• Not all studies are advertised by email, so it’s important to return regularly to the website to see if anything new has been posted.
• Some shorter studies offer prize draw entries instead of guaranteed payments. It’s your choice whether to enter these. Personally I do them if they sound interesting and I have the time, but not otherwise.

I have made several hundred pounds from People for Research since joining their panel earlier this year, and have found the people who work there a pleasure to deal with as well.

In my view, People for Research deserves a place in everyone’s sideline money-making portfolio!

Win Cash and Prizes with Lucky Leftovers

Nick Making Money 2 Comments

If you own an Android smartphone, here’s a great risk-free opportunity to win cash and prizes from it.

Lucky Leftovers is an Android app that takes advantage of your monthly text allowance. Nowadays most people get ‘unlimited’ texts on their mobile contracts, but unless perhaps they are teenagers they may only send a few texts a month. Lucky Leftovers allows you to put this mostly wasted allowance to good use.

Once you are signed up with Lucky Leftovers – which is free – you can enter any of the giveaways listed. You can enter just once or (better) daily. Once you have chosen the contests you want to enter, the app (in conjunction with your phone) will submit entries for you every day, with no other input required from you.

Just to make clear, these are not the type of contest where you are charged a fee per text (which I don’t recommend at all). So long as you have an inclusive monthly or prepaid contract and stay within your allowance, you will not be charged anything for entering these contests.

If you are lucky you will win a prize, but even if not you will get a point for every entry. The points can be converted to Amazon vouchers or cash in your PayPal account once you have earned £5 or more (see What Are Points Worth? below).

The prizes aren’t spectacular, but they aren’t bad either. Here is a screen capture showing some of them…

Other prizes on offer at the time of writing include Bluetooth speakers, headphones, a trip up the London Shard, two Lion King tickets, a remote-controlled drone, a PlayStation 4, and plain old cash. If you win a prize but don’t want it, you can usually request a cash equivalent.

As you may have noticed, many of the giveaways are also raising money for charities.

What are points worth?

I’ll resist the temptation to say “What do Points Make? Prizes!” (rest in peace, Sir Bruce).

Each point on Lucky Leftovers is worth £0.001p. In other words, 10 points are worth a penny, 100 are 10p, 1000 are £1, and 5000 are £5.00.

£5 is the minimum threshold to request a payment. You might think it will take a long time to accumulate 5000 points, but actually if you submit 5000 prize-draw entries a month, that would give you £5 every month (plus any prizes you win, of course).

That’s not the whole of it, though…

Extra ways to earn points

As mentioned, you get one point for every entry, including automated entries.

There are other ways to earn points as well, though. You can do so by watching short videos (typically promoting games) via the app. You seem to get anywhere between 10 and 30 points per video you watch, so this can boost your total quite quickly.

In addition, you can earn points by purchasing via selected retailers listed on the app (see screen capture below). You get ‘cashback’ on these purchases, which is paid to you in the form of points.

Finally, you can get extra points by referring other people or joining via someone else’s referral link. More about this below!

Watch your limits

I said earlier that most people nowadays have an ‘unlimited’ texts allowance, but that doesn’t apply to everyone. If you are on a cheap deal there may be an upper limit every month, and you don’t want to exceed this or you will start being charged extra. You should also to allow for the fact that you may want to send some text messages to friends and relatives yourself, so you need to leave a few in reserve!

Even if you do have an ‘unlimited’ allowance, so-called fair usage restrictions typically apply. A common one is an upper limit of 5000 texts a month. Again, you don’t want to exceed this. Check with your provider if you are unsure what your monthly limits are.

The good news is that Lucky Leftovers allows you to set maximum daily and monthly texting limits on your Settings page. You can start low to test the water if you like, and increase the numbers as you gain confidence. That’s what I did, incidentally.

Will you be spammed?

This is obviously a concern with any app of this nature, but my experience so far has been entirely positive. I have not received a single spam text or phone call as a result of using the app. This has also been the experience of others using the app longer than I have.

Get 500 points through me!

As mentioned earlier, Lucky Leftovers has a referral scheme that lets you earn points by referring others. So here is my referral link. If you click through this and install the app, you will be credited with 500 points (worth 50p), and so will I. That’s a nice little bonus to start you on the way to your first £5!

Good luck if you do decide to join up with Lucky Leftovers. I hope you win lots of points and prizes.

If you have any comments or questions, as always, please do leave them below.