Double Agent

Add a little bit of Mystery into your life and become a Mystery Shopper. This little trick won’t make a huge impact on your bank balance, but it does get you some free stuff, and can provide you with a little bit of fun imagining you're some sort of corporate spy.

So what’s it all about then?

The companies that I have worked with all work in a similar way. They all make assignments available and you then sign up to the ones that suit you. They range from going and buying a sandwich from Pret, to phoning up a call centre, to having a pub lunch, or even placing the odd bet.

The assignments detail a Specific time window or date range and a set of specific activities that you have to do. You may have to buy a specific main course, ask a question about a new brand, or count the number of customers etc. Then at the end you take a picture or 2 as surreptitiously as possible, and write up a structured report. None of the reports that I compiled were too onerous and they are built around specific questions so you don’t have to be a creative writer, accuracy is far more important.

In return, the company pay for your expenses, so the costs of your meal will be covered, and sometimes you get a small payment on top. But they normally don’t cover travel costs, nor do they cover any other items you may end up purchasing whilst on the assignment, so for example if you’re going to lunch with your partner, they will normally pay for your meal but not your partners. That is unless they need information about both you and your partners meal.

How to make it work

This is not going to make you a millionaire and typically these assignments have ended up costing me more that I received in payment, because of extra stuff I’ve bought along the way. You should also be conscious that any money you do make is taxable and the onus is on you to declare it. But if you buy lunch in, Pret for example, or you can do so easily, then you can effectively get paid for something that you would be doing anyway, so typically this reduces your outgoings. The key is to sign up for assignments that fit into your routine and that replace expenditure that you would otherwise have to pay out for. The other way to look at it is as a bit of cheap fun, so if you can sign up to something and channel the James Bond spirit, whilst doing something that you enjoy doing then it’s well worth doing.

Signing up

I’ve signed up to 2 companies in the past, Market force and Grassroots. There are several other sites as well, so its worth a google, and the MoneySavingExpert.Com has a good forum to check out the latest assignments.