Hi! I am a single mom of 2 girls ages 9 and 11. I just joined this forum today and I will appreciate any help that I can receive.
I have done mystery shops for Second To None for few years, in the past I did some for best mark.
I was reading the interviews with those that are making over $2,000 per month, and I felt like is an answer from God.
Actually, I work as a substitute teacher/secretary, and since the schools are closing very often because of the weather or holidays, I am pretty much out of work.
I prayed to God to show me the way to make extra money to be able to pay for my rent, and the bills that I need to pay this coming week.
Can someone please, let me know what are the bests companies to work with and the ones that will pay cash for the jobs. I live in Springfield,MO.
How does videos shopping works?
As you can tell, I don't know much about what's going on.
So, any good tip, will help me.
Thank you very much! God bless you all.

Hi Zen,

Welcome to the forum!

The answers to your questions, or at least information from which your answers can be had are here on the forum. Go get a nice cup of coffee or the drink that suits and take some time to read what is here. Start at the new member section and read the 'sticky' threads. Those are the ones at the top that stay there. Check out what people have to say about companies in the threads or the reviews in the Mystery Shopper Magazine.

Just about every company will pay cash in the form of a fee and/or reimbursement. Only one that I know of uses gift cards to compensate shoppers. There is a lot of information and no simple answers to the 'best company' question. Much of that answer is based on what is available in your area and what your preferences are.

Good luck and have fun with it.

Zen, at the bottom of the page you will find a blue link to a list of mystery shopping companies. Sign up first with Market Force, Maritz, BestMark, and Bare. After you go through the sign up process with the companies you will find out how to get jobs with them. The advice from Vlade about reading the New Mystery Shopper section first several threads is spot on. Do that. Good luck. Come back to us when you have specific questions and someone will answer.

We really need to look at a couple of things in your circumstances.

Mystery shopping is not going to help you get bills paid quickly. Payment terms vary with some being within a few weeks while other companies may not pay you for two or three months. For shops requiring any type of reimbursed purchase you will pay that money up front and wait to be reimbursed at the same time you receive your fee.

Since mystery shopping is a business rather than a job it also takes time to become established, network, and build relationships with schedulers and MSCs. Building up to $2,000 plus per month will usually either take time, a year or more minimum, or both the willingness and ability to travel.

You are registered with two companies already. Continue to register with more, don't take on more than you can reasonably handle and build slowly. Use mystery shopping as a way to supplement your income or as a way to be reimbursed for items you would definitely buy anyway such as groceries.

Zen,

I'm new to this too. I lost my husband in early November after a long illness and being out of work taking care of him, I didn't know (and still don't know) what I want to do to get our family back on our feet. So I turned to researching MS. I took a good solid week just researching, signing up, completing some certifications and finding this forum. This also included researching reviews for various MS companies. Things I did to organize included: listing the companies I registered with and writing down usernames and passwords, started an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of mileage, setting up my file crate and then accepted my first jobs.

I found Maritz to be friendly, helpful and easy acceptance. It only took about a week of work with them, and now they call me several times a week to pick up jobs. Today they called and I was able to pick up some last minute end of the month jobs, and ask for an additional incentive. (They accepted quickly!)

As others have said, pay is not immediate, so think about this as starting to budget ahead one to two months. So, if you start picking up jobs in March to meet your income needs, you will be paid at the end of April or May, but through keeping it up each month, you will have a steady paycheck coming in from then on. You might want to consider slowly working this into your existing work by setting weekly and monthly goals.

Best of luck!

Thank you very much! I will do that!
I am going to separate time just to do that, as if I was out working for somebody else.
Like I said, I need all the help that I can receive. And my rent is due Sunday.
So I better get busy, because I will have to make a loan to pay the loan, and then work as much as I can to pay back the loan and have money to pay the next rent and the other bills.
Thanks for all the answers. I really appreciated all them.
God bless you all.