Losing points on your California driver’s license means higher car insurance rates, and it puts you that much closer to losing your license, which will make you a slave to public transportation and expensive taxicab rides. The best way to avoid losing your license is to avoid driving like a (insert your favorite expletive for bad drivers here.) But if you end up with a traffic violation anyway, you may be eligible to go to traffic school. TrafficSchoolToGo.com is one of the many, many online traffic schools that you can attend virtually. The sheer number of choices for online traffic schools can make it difficult to pick one, which is why we’re about to give you the low-down on this one.
Top-Rated Online Traffic Schools
TrafficSchoolToGo: Legit, or Scam?
TrafficSchoolToGo.com is about as legit as they come. It’s been in business since 1997, and it’s operated by the American Safety Council. The traffic safety course is licensed by the California DMV for tickets in every county and court in the state.
The Cost and What You Get For Your Money
TrafficSchoolToGo.com costs $19.95, and they proudly promise absolutely no hidden fees. So what does your $19.95 include? It includes the course, 24/7 U.S-based customer support, the final test, and electronic reporting of your completion of the course to the DMV and the county court. If you find a program that costs less, TrafficSchoolToGo.com promises to beat that price.
How it Works
As long as you haven’t had more than one citation in the past 18 months, committed a one-point violation, and weren’t operating a commercial vehicle when you got your ticket, you’re eligible to attend TrafficSchoolToGo.com.
Registration
The first thing you’ll need to do is register for the class. You’ll fill out the registration form, which requires the usual information plus your driver’s license and ticket information (which you can enter later,) pay your $19.95, and voila! You can start right away. The registration process is straightforward and easy.
Coursework
After each lesson, you’ll take a quiz, and at the end of the course you’ll take a final exam, which you must pass with a score of 70% or better. These are the DMV’s rules, not the school’s, but there’s really nothing to fear since the exam and quizzes are easy, and they’re “open book,” which means you can refer to your notes for the answers. If you fail anyway, you can re-register for free, which is a nice perk, although the test is so easy that there’s probably only a minuscule chance that you’ll fail and have to re-take the course. You do the course work at your own pace, and you can access the lessons from your phone, tablet, or computer, which is pretty handy. According to TrafficSchoolToGo.com, the course takes around six hours to complete, and they promise that their online up-time is over 99.9%.
Certificate Of Completion
After you pass the final exam with a 70% or better, TrafficSchoolToGo.com will report your completion to the appropriate powers that be, and you’ll get an email with the proof of receipt.
What We Like About TrafficSchoolToGo.com
What we like so far is that TrafficSchoolToGo.com is run by the American Safety Council, and it’s been around since 1997, making it well-established and obviously reputable. Registration appears to be straightforward, and you won’t find any hidden fees. You can take the course again for free if you fail the exam, and you can work at your own pace on your computer, phone, or tablet. We also like their refund policy and customer support.
Obtaining Refunds
If you get started on the coursework and then decide for any reason that you don’t want to continue, you can get a full refund as long as you haven’t taken the first quiz. To get a refund, you have to send a written request to support@trafficschooltogo.com within 60 days of the date you registered for the course.
Customer Service
TrafficSchoolToGo.com offers 24/7 customer support via email, telephone, or live chat. This is a major plus, since being able to reach support staff is critical in the event you get locked out of the system for any reason or have a question about your certificate of completion.
What Former Students Say About TrafficSchoolToGo.com
Up to this point, all indicators are pointing to a good 4 star rating for TrafficSchoolToGo.com. Once you read the reviews on Yelp, though, you might begin to wonder. But remember: it’s always a good idea to take reviews with a grain of salt, since you can never be sure they’re legit, and research shows that those who are disgruntled tend to write reviews more often than those who are satisfied. On Yelp, there’s only one satisfied customer out of the seven who wrote reviews. The fellow who gave them five stars was pleased with the excellent and knowledgeable customer service staff and the fact that the site worked smoothly for him. The six one-star reviews are rather scathing, mostly concerning the fact that this appears to be a timed course, even though California no longer requires that online traffic school courses be timed. What this means is that you have to spend at least 40 minutes on each lesson before you can move on to the next. To that, I say, what do you expect from the American Safety Council? Listen, it sounds to me like these folks aren’t in this business solely for the money, unlike many other online traffic schools. It’s more likely that they want you to actually put in the time and learn a little something about driving safely. After all, you’re not taking online traffic school because you think it sounds like a fun way to spend six to eight hours. You’re taking it because you were driving like a… well, you know. The rest of the complaints are about how boring the course is, as if these folks are surprised that online traffic school wasn’t a barrel of monkeys in clown suits juggling jiggling water balloons. No one ever said traffic school was supposed to keep you entertained, pal. Maybe next time you’ll think twice about running that stop sign. A few of the reviews mentioned problems with slow load times and certificate reporting, but since there are so few reviews, it’s hard to say whether those were isolated events.
Final Rating for TrafficSchoolToGo.com
Traffic School To Go is a legit traffic school with an easy-to-navigate site, 24-hour customer service, and options for using any of your devices to complete the course. It’s reasonably priced, and it’s run by the reputable organization American Safety Council. It is, apparently, a timed course, which means you can’t bust through it in a couple of hours. Rather, it will take at least 6 hours to complete. And while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, we’re gonna dock them one star for not letting you know it’s timed before you sign up for the course. Therefore, TrafficSchoolToGo.com earns a 4-star rating out of 5 stars, making this an above-average online traffic school.