The pay is extremely low, currently 17 cents a minute at 2019. Only expect to tutor and earn money if you sign up for priority hours but even then you are not guaranteed any calls. If you receive no calls they pay for 5 minutes "waiting time" in an hour but even if you do receive a call it could be from a 5 minute free trial student for which you will only be paid 85 cents for the 5 minute call in an hour. It's difficult to think of another job which pays only 85 cents for an hour of your time. Another problem with the free trial system is that a student might only stay on the line for less than a minute which means you do not even receive the 17 cents for trying to tutor them ! It's really quite pathetic. If not on priority hours don't expect to earn any money at all because they will not put any calls your way no matter how long you wait.
Some students who use Cambly are genuine but there's many who are not interested in actually learning English and use the app as a dating site with some who make inappropriate comments and actions. Because the fees for using the site are cheap it seems to attract many cheap minded students lacking in motivation, unprepared regarding books and who seem to think a tutor can teach them fluent English after a few conversations ! Their expectations are totally unrealistic. If you report more than two persistent time wasters or cases of inappropriate behaviour in one priority hour session you are put on an enforced break of 10-15 minutes which further reduces your potential earnings, this despite the reporting system supposedly being there specifically to report inappropriate behaviour !
Techincal problems are ALWAYS the tutor's fault and never the Cambly system itself despite sending screen shots of the problem. If student's can't hear or see the tutor properly because they are using low end equipment that too is always the tutor's fault ! Often the system freezes and you are blamed for that as well and have a priority hour taken from you due to that. This has a knock on effect because 3 or more times this happens and you will be suspended for 3 days despite the problem being with the Cambly system itself or the student's equipment. There is no way you can win with this company and only the very desperate would work for them.
