Maximising income - Mystery Shopping? Surveys? (Part Two)

jobbingmusician

Hey folks, remember those mysterious greyed out bits in Gap assignments that we were wondering about? I think I may have solved the mystery, at least partially.

Last week there were some coffee shop assignments that had to be done between Fri and Sun. On Sunday they were showing with the available date as that day. On Monday they were still showing as available assignments, but the box showing available dates was greyed out. Later in the day someone had updated the times, and they showed as 'normal' again, with available dates one week later.

Hope this will be interesting to whoever it was who asked the question

newmoneysaver_2

:mad: I'm so a annoyed with one of the MS companies. I emailed them this morning to confirm the details of an assignment - the briefing notes showed 3 different senarios to follow, but by coversheet had a senario entered that I couldn't do. I haven't had a reply, but they have deleted the assignment from my scheduled visits, without telling me! It's a good job I checked!

Sorry, rant over...

ilean

Hi
Looking for shoppers to do family bar visits 29th or 30th June in:

Oxford
Newcastle
Sunderland

Must have Excel

Must be between 12:00 – 15:00 for 1 adult and one or two children( must be under 12 years of age)
3 meals and 3 drink purchases refunded as well as fee and travel allowance.


Anyone interested and available on one of these dates please drop me a line with your area and the ages of the children


Eflaherty1@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks

hollydays

Thought i would do a couple of visits for a company i used to work for-but now find out they want me to make a purchase (£20-£40 ish ithink) then when i have sent them the goods back,they will send me a cheque.Said no.
Is this usual?

Mrs_E_Shopper

hollydays wrote: »

Thought i would do a couple of visits for a company i used to work for-but now find out they want me to make a purchase (£20-£40 ish ithink) then when i have sent them the goods back,they will send me a cheque.Said no.
Is this usual?

I have done this a couple of times for one company at a shoe shop. This was truly heartbreaking - to have bought a beautiful pair of £70 shoes then to have to parcel them up and send them away! Also I have posted train tickets back. There might have been others I can't remember. The money then went into my bank account fairly quickly and separately from the fee. I have never heard of being sent a cheque though. I must say personally I would rather do it that way than have to take things back to the shop with some feeble excuse. Taking things back is one of the worst parts of mystery shopping for me.

Becles

hollydays wrote: »

Thought i would do a couple of visits for a company i used to work for-but now find out they want me to make a purchase (£20-£40 ish ithink) then when i have sent them the goods back,they will send me a cheque.Said no.
Is this usual?

Some companies do reimburse by cheque. One of the companies I work regular for always use cheques.

I find it's handy to have a credit card for MS purchases, then by the time the bill is due, you've usually been reimbursed for your goods.

Gemmzie

One company insisted on paying me via Paypal! Who've taken a cut! Grr

Timmne

Sarahsaver wrote: »

You CANNOT claim for bus fares if the MS company gives you travel expenses, as some do.

This isn't true...

It doesn't matter what the MS company gives you - if you're working as a contractor (i.e. paid gross) you're paid an amount, be it £5, £10 or £100.

It's only the MS company that's quantifying what they're paying you for, not them paying you for specific things when they say they'll pay travel expenses. For example, if they pay you £10 for a job and £2 travel expenses it's the same as paying you a £12 fee. It's all income for the purposes of your tax return.

On the same note, if you pay for a bus journey to the place you're visiting then you can claim this against your income. It's a big benefit of being self employed rather than employed.

If however they are paying your travel directly to the travel operator, i.e. you don't pay out anything for the travel then you can't claim this against your profits.

Simple rules - if you pay out for something and it's "wholly, exclusively and necessarily" for the purpose of your business then you can claim it against your income.

Remember though, the above is ONLY relevant if you're working as a self employed contractor, not if you're an employee. If you're an employee you can't take anything off your income yourself, this will all be dealt with at their end. If you need to be reimbursed travel expenses they will do so exclusive of tax.

If anyone needs proper advice on what they can/can't claim and how to manage their taxes with MS please PM me or ask on this thread. Apologies to Sarahsaver but the advice in the above quoted post is incorrect, on a self employed basis.

trubster

I use all bus tickets against my earnings, Mainly because I buy passes so it cant be split into personal or business :-D

trubster

Does anyone on here do Bus Mystery Shops??? if so, What happened to Conor, I heared he left... how come? he was ace.