MyTEFL review (https://mytefl.com/) submitted by Yvette.

Where do I begin? I’ll start with what I didn’t like about the MyTEFL course and then I’ll finish with what I did like about it.

What I didn’t like:

1. Finished this 120-hour course in one afternoon.
2. Had to pay $99 for the TEFL certificate.
3. Noticed spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in the course content.
4. When I tried contacting the MyTEFL office I got no response.
5. The course came with online tutor support, which I didn’t receive.
6. Am worried about the international recognition of the certificate because they are only regionally recognized in Thailand.
7. The course was way too easy and the quiz questions at the end of each module were so easy that my 8-year-old son was able to answer most of them correctly.

What I liked:

1. The course price is good. I paid $199. However, you do need to account for the $99 certification fee on top of this.
2. Some of the modules were better than others. the ones that were (Grammar especially) were written really well and included some excellent graphics.
3. In the end, I did receive my certificate and as long as I want to teach in Thailand I know that I will be able to teach there without issue.

If you want to teach in Thailand, this MyTEFL course will likely be one of the ones accepted by the majority of schools within the kingdom.

Read more MyTEFL reviews: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/mytefl-blacklisted-warning/

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4 Worst TEFL Courses 2026, written by Mia Williams – co-founder of Trusted TEFL Reviews.

December 8, 2025 Notice:

It has been brought to our attention that ITTT TEFL, My TEFL, and TTA The TEFL Academy have been offering their TEFL graduates free “bonus” courses (which are worthless) in return for writing a positive review on their Facebook pages and on the other review websites where they have hundreds of positive reviews.

This is the reason why ITTT TEFL, My TEFL, and TTA The TEFL Academy have such awful reviews on trustedteflreviews.com and amazing reviews on other platforms. This is a scam.

There are some excellent Online TEFL/TESOL certification course options out there, and there are some that you should avoid.

The best Online TEFL/TESOL certification courses come with excellent support and offer certificates that are Fully Accredited and internationally recognized.

The worst Online TEFL/TESOL certification courses lack sufficient student support and lack international recognition.

Here are the 4 worst TEFL courses in 2026, in all their upside down glory – starting at the 4th worst and continuing down to the worst of the worst:

4. ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training

There are a few stand-out issues with the ITTT TEFL program:

1. It employs aggressive affiliate marketers that hype up the course on platforms such as Quora. The most prolific of these is Linda Dunsmore – Marketing Manager at (yep, you guessed right) ITTT. Linda spams Quora with helpful posts about how she was an ITTT graduate and how the course worked for her. What she doesn’t come clean about, though, is that she is on the ITTT management marketing team.
2. ITTT doesn’t just have one program website. Instead, it has more than 10 of them. They all look similar, but each contains slightly different claims and each looks different enough that the waters are muddied when it comes to pinpointing the true identity of the core company website.
3. ITTT is a company headquartered in Thailand, and they are accredited by some pretty dodgy accreditation companies. One of these is OTTSA, and another is The Teacher Training Council. Both are registered in Thailand, and both have been exposed as fake accreditation websites. The Teacher Training Council can’t even spell “Accreditation” correctly. They spell it, “AccrediDation”.

ITTT International TEFL and TESOL Training is Accredited but is not Fully Accredited.

You can read further information about ITTT, including verified customer reviews, in the Trusted TEFL Reviews ITTT TEFL category: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ittt/

3. MyTEFL

MyTEFL exploded into the Online TEFL training arena about 5 or 6 years ago.

It claims to have been around for a lot longer, but 5 or 6 years is a more realistic and honest assessment.

Students tend to like the course.

That’s where the positives end.

1. MyTEFL is propped up by a fake accreditation body ( Online TESOL and TEFL Standards Agency – OTTSA) and another one that they recently created: the International TEFL Accreditation Council – ITEFLAC. New! MyTEFL is now also “accredited” by the International Council for Online Educational Standards (ICOES). ICOES also accredits such bastions of international education including, but not limited to, ‘Permanent Jewelry Bestie’ and ‘spray tan class’.
2. Graduates regularly complain that they were ripped off by bait-and-switch scams on the job placements abroad that they accepted through MyTEFL and its parent company, Footprints Language Education Ltd. Teachers arrived to find that the accommodation and pay weren’t as promised, and some discovered that a percentage of their monthly salary was being deducted and paid back to MyTEFL/Footprints Language Education Ltd.
3. MyTEFL has tried to have fake reviews published on Trusted TEFL Reviews and reacted very poorly when we refused to publish these unverified “customer” reviews. Its response was to launch a campaign against us, claiming that this review website is biased toward certain TEFL programs. They even went so far as to claim that Trusted TEFL Reviews is owned by OISE University of Toronto TEFL and/or TEFL Online Pro. Yep, the true sign of a reputable company is to attack the reviews site that refused to publish its fake “customer” reviews.

MyTEFL is Accredited but is not Fully Accredited.

You can read further information about MyTEFL, including verified customer reviews, in the Trusted TEFL Reviews MyTEFL category: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/mytefl-blacklisted-warning/

2. TTA The TEFL Academy

This company is a car crash waiting to happen, so go grab your popcorn and a comfy couch.

TTA The TEFL Academy claims to be “Fully Accredited” by a few organizations, with one of these being DEAC.

We sent out an inquiry to DEAC yesterday, and they responded that TTA The TEFL Academy is not accredited by them.

The helpful people at DEAC directed us to a page on their website, where the public can check whether a TEFL program is listed in their database.

Here is that link: https://www.deac.org/Student-Center/Directory-Of-Accredited-Institutions.aspx

1. TTA The TEFL Academy claims to be accredited by AQC, DEAC, QUALIFI, and even by Ofqual. It is accredited by no company. It is only regulated by Ofqual and QUALIFI, and it also appears that QUALIFI might have been created by the good folks at TTA The TEFL Academy.
2. TTA the TEFL Academy has tried to have its staff-written reviews published on Trusted TEFL Reviews. Last year, one of its full-time Brand Ambassador employees became infuriated with me because I wouldn’t publish her review that read like a TTA TEFL brochure. What was her response? She said that Trusted TEFL Reviews is biased and began writing rubbish about me and my reviews site online. Oh, and, of course, she claims that Trusted TEFL Reviews is owned by TEFL Online Pro because it is the top-rated program on this site currently. And all because we wouldn’t publish her review.
3. Despite having its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, TTA The TEFL Academy certificates are not recognized for English teaching jobs in Ireland. In Malta neither. The one place where you are guaranteed to be able to use your TTA The TEFL Academy certificate is in the UK. Reviewers have complained about not being able to use their TTA The TEFL Academy certificates for some online teaching jobs and some overseas jobs.
4. TTA The TEFL Academy aggressively promotes itself through a network of affiliate marketers – people who may or may not have taken one of its courses. These marketing minions earn a 20% referral fee every time someone books a TTA The TEFL Academy course through their affiliate website. This is one of the reasons why we feel that TTA The TEFL Academy courses are overpriced.

TTA The TEFL Academy is Unaccredited. It is neither Accredited nor Fully Accredited.

The TEFL Academy, via its network of Brand Ambassadors, aggressively pushes the notion that it is fully accredited and aggressively pushes the notion that some of the reputable organizations that are competitors are Fully Accredited are, in fact, fake. I hear defamation lawsuit bells ringing!

You can read further information about TTA The TEFL Academy, including verified customer reviews, in the Trusted TEFL Reviews The TEFL Academy category: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/the-tefl-academy/

1. ESLinsider

The popcorn and couch time might have already passed with this program because our research has shown that ESLinsider is not a full-time-functioning TEFL program anymore.

I spent a lazy Sunday searching through the many Reddit user names of the owner of ESLinsider TEFL (Ian Patrick Leahy) and I read how he returned from Japan to New Hampshire because his website wasn’t doing so well. In the two years since then, Ian has worked on ski and snowboarding slopes in New Hampshire and Montana.

It appears that he is now planning on working a summer season this year in Oregon.

I also read some of Ian’s Reddit questions – enquiring about traveling to either Chile or New Zealand for under-the-table paid work.

Why does ESLinsider come in at number 1 for the worst TEFL courses in 2026?

1. Ian Patrick Leahy began the ESLinsider TEFL program because he hated teaching English and wanted to earn a quick buck by running online TEFL courses, which he called TEKA courses. The problem was that he didn’t have enough experience or knowledge to even teach, never mind running a training program. This didn’t deter Ian and he soldiered on, creating linguistic minefield disasters as his objective grew.
2. He was clever in one respect. He created a blog for ESLinsider, where he tried to convey the impression that he was an ESL expert. He also “reviewed” his competitor’s TEFL programs (which he never even paid and took) and wrote critical feedback on them – all the while linking back to his blog and to his ESLinsider course. This meant that you could Google any well-known Online TEFL program and you would see ESLinsider’s take on it. The obvious reason for spending so much of his time doing this was that he hoped to convince people that his TEFL course was better and that they should pay him to take his course. His MO is to claim that such and such a course or person is a “scam”, “fake”, “fraud”, etc. He also went after reputable accreditation bodies – after all, his courses were unaccredited so he had to try and angle it that accreditation bodies are all fake.
3. Ian (ESLinsider) was the first TEFL program that we received a fake review and it was the first time that a TEFL program retaliated against us for not publishing its fake review. Ian Patrick Leahy from ESLinsider was the person who began the misinformation that Trusted TEFL Reviews is biased and owned by CIEE TEFL, OISE University of Toronto TEFL, and TEFL Online Pro. Of course, this is not true.
4. He is also alleged to have conned his paying customers out of their money. This is one example of a group of Ian Patrick Leahy’s ESLinsider TEFL students, who were left out of pocket by Ian:

ESLinsider is Unaccredited. It is neither Accredited nor Fully Accredited.

You can read further information about ESLinsider, including verified customer reviews, in the Trusted TEFL Reviews ESLinsider category: https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/eslinsider-tefl/

Our Tip!

To avoid falling victim to a TEFL scam, check how high or low a program is ranked in the TEFL Course Directory: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/

The top-rated schools in the directory are top-rated for a legitimate reason.

You can also check the TEFL Accreditation Guide, to see which organizations provide Fully Accredited certificates: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-accreditation-guide/

Worst TEFL Courses 2026 related links:

ITTT TEFL Accreditation: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/03/23/ittt-tefl-accreditation/

TTA The TEFL Academy Scam Warning: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2019/03/25/the-tefl-academy-certification-review/

The MyTEFL Scam: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/01/24/the-mytefl-com-scam/

The ESLinsider Scam: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2020/02/03/eslinsider-reviews-scam/

Affiliate Marketing Scam: https://trustedteflreviews.com/2022/02/07/tefl-affiliate-marketing-scam/

December 1st, 2025 Update:

World TESOL Academy must also be added to this Worst TEFL Courses 2026 list:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/world-tesol-academy/

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: Courses Directory

The post 4 Worst TEFL Courses 2026 appeared first on Trusted TEFL Reviews.

This article will help you avoid TEFL course scams during the Online TEFL/TESOL course sign-up process, and when you start searching for a teaching English job overseas or online.

Essential Tip!

We (Trusted TEFL Reviews) have had enough of the few rogue Online TEFL/TESOL companies that have been coordinating a sustained smear campaign against trustedteflreviews.com and managing to scam students by presenting themselves in a more professional light than they are.

You can read all about this scam in the following article:

Online TEFL/TESOL Course Review Scams in 2024

If you are concerned about becoming a victim of an Online TEFL/TESOL course scam, we strongly recommend choosing from one of the 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL certification course programs in 2024:

The 5 Best Online TEFL TESOL Courses in 2024

Mia Williams – Trusted TEFL Reviews

Choosing your TEFL/TESOL course.

Thankfully, there are not so many outright TEFL course scams out there regarding teaching English training courses. If you have come across a course and are questioning its legitimacy, you should:

1. Check to see whether the school is listed in the Trusted TEFL Reviews Online TEFL/TESOL Courses Directory: https://trustedteflreviews.com/tefl-course-directory/ If it isn’t listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews, it might be that the school doesn’t exist or has failed the submission process.
2. If searching online, try to discern real student feedback from business competitor attacks. The Online TEFL/TESOL certification course industry is highly competitive and certain companies do thrive, in part, by inflicting intentional damage on their rivals through misinformation campaigns. Always trust verified student feedback when choosing a program.
3. Read the school’s reviews on Trusted TEFL Reviews. All reviews published on Trusted TEFL Reviews have been verified. Before a review is published, we always require additional verification that the person who has written the review really took the course.

Whilst there aren’t a significant number of outright TEFL course scams, there are many cases of grey area TEFL course scams. These low-to-middle-level scams usually present themselves in a school promising something and not delivering on that promise, and/or a school publishing false information so as to try to convince you to enroll in their course.

There are many, many, many fake TEFL reviews on the internet – mostly written by a handful of schools that are notorious within the industry for questionable practices. There is also a worrying trend that some schools will actively encourage graduates to take part in an affiliate links program – this is when you take your course and upon course completion, the school will try hard-selling you to encourage others to sign up, so that you can earn a commission on each future course purchase.

Some programs go even a step further by paying people who have never taken one of their courses to promote their program online; claiming that they took the course and claiming that the course has done so much for them. Instances of this are commonly found in highlighted content on travel blogs/vlogs, where a school is promoted and the blog/vlog author receives a commission when any new applicant uses their discount code at the time of course enrollment. Forums and other discussion sites are also targets for people hoping to make a bit of money by falsely claiming that they took such and such a course, which they “loved”, and closing their copy and paste statement with a checkout coupon code.

At Trusted TEFL Reviews, we make sure that each and every published review is verified and further ensure that no affiliate links are contained anywhere within this site.

Searching for an English teaching job abroad.

Unfortunately, there are many recurring cases of scams involving language schools and teaching overseas agencies.

One scenario is where a teacher applies for a job, through an agency, and pays an administration charge. The teacher then never hears back from the said agency and loses their hard-earned money.

Another type of scam involves identity theft and takes place after a teacher has emailed off scans of their official forms of identification. With this scam, the teacher then never hears back from the agency or school – their documents are used instead to fuel illegal activity.

The third, most popular scam, involves purposefully enticing teachers with misinformation. If a job sounds too good to be true, it invariably is.

So how do you avoid falling for scams when searching for an English teaching job abroad?

1. Never pay anyone for job placement services. There are so many available teaching options out there that it makes little sense in hiring someone to do the legwork for you. If you do decide to go through a job placement agency, you might not only be paying their one-off fee – they might also be making money off you by creaming off a percentage of your monthly salary going forward.
2. Do your background research and thoroughly go through a language school’s online reputation. Check to see what past students and teachers have posted about the school online and try, wherever possible, to speak with current teachers.
3. Reduce the risk of being scammed by applying for the job whilst physically in the country where the school is located. This way, you will have the opportunity of seeing the school’s bricks and mortar premises and judging for yourself whether there is a pleasant working environment or not. This may not be a viable option if say applying for a teaching position in China (where initial applications should be made from your home country) but in these cases, you should rely on your online research to discern whether a school is legit.
4. Lastly, choosing a TEFL/TESOL course program with ongoing job guidance is essential in helping you avoid all the pitfalls discussed above. Most TEFL schools advertise ‘international job guidance’, but not all of them adhere to this promise. Check out the Online TEFL Courses Reviews listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews to make a well-informed course program choice.

A unique feature of Trusted TEFL Reviews, and something that clearly sets us apart from most other Online TEFL reviews websites, is that we don’t allow TEFL programs the possibility of being able to pay to delete negative reviews. What we do allow TEFL programs to do, however, is to respond to any of their verified customer reviews transparently.

Whilst most of the programs listed on Trusted TEFL Reviews treat a negative review as an unavoidable occurrence when running a business, some programs, instead, have chosen the route of trying to pressure us to publish only positive reviews of their program. A couple of programs have also tried to claim that we are somehow associated with the highest-rated Online TEFL programs, so as to try to make it seem that we are biased against them.

Trusted TEFL Reviews is an independently-run Online TEFL/TESOL reviews website. We are not affiliated, in any way, with any of the Online TEFL/TESOL certification programs listed on this site.

If an Online TEFL/TESOL certification program has a high rating on Trusted TEFL Reviews, it means that they are doing something right when it comes to the product they offer and how they treat their customers.

If an Online TEFL/TESOL certification program has a low rating on Trusted TEFL Reviews, it means that they are doing something wrong when it comes to the product they offer and how they treat their customers.

Written by Mia Williams for Trusted TEFL Reviews (TTR) | Best Featured TEFL Articles

Related articles:

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/6-tefl-red-flags/

https://trustedteflreviews.com/2021/03/30/common-tefl-scams/

New! Click here for the online TEFL/TESOL international certification course Teachers’ Choice Award winner. International Online TEFL/TESOL course certification at its best.

Verified Online TEFL/TESOL certification course program reviews, ranked in order of customer satisfaction: TEFL Course Directory

TEFL Accreditation Guide | 6 TEFL Red Flags | TTR Home | TEFL Course Special Offers

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