Smooth Traffic School

Now you’ve done it! In addition to having to pay a premium for following your own traffic rules instead of California’s, you’re going to get a point assessed against your driver’s license and see your insurance rates skyrocket if you don’t take a traffic violator course, which in the olden days meant spending 8 hours on a Saturday afternoon confined within four dreary walls with an odd collection of other folks who like to make up traffic laws as they go. But nowadays, you can take traffic violator school online in California, and Smooth Traffic School is one of a huge number of online traffic school providers.

Top-Rated Online Traffic Schools


Is Smooth Traffic School Legit?

 

Smooth Traffic School is completely legitimate, licensed by the California DMV to provide their course in all counties in the state, and their website is SSL encrypted for the optimum security of your sensitive personal information. Smooth Traffic School began operating online in January of 2014, which makes them one of the newer traffic schools, and while “tried and true” is always a good thing, newer doesn’t necessarily preclude a traffic school from providing an excellent course. Let’s see how Smooth Traffic School stands up against the competition.

Features of Smooth Traffic School

 

For $19.95, you get the traffic violator course, which is 100 percent online and includes the final exam you must pass in order to get your completion certificate, and the price includes the electronic transmission of your completion certificate to the DMV and presiding court. If you’ve waited until the last minute to take the course, you can pay extra for same-day processing, and although Smooth Traffic School doesn’t indicate how much that’ll set you back, it’s usually along the lines of $25 extra. So it’s always a good idea to complete your course a few days ahead of schedule to avoid running into a time crunch that’ll cost you extra. The routine electronic submissions of the certificate will be in the hands of the DMV within three business days after completing the course. Smooth Traffic School offers a price match guarantee, which is always nice. If you find a course that’s approved in the same county where you got your ticket, you can mail or fax a printed copy of the competing school’s price, and Smooth Traffic School will refund you the difference. You have 30 days after completing your course to claim your price match. The Deal of the Day at Smooth Traffic School can also save you money. For example, as of this writing, a Fall Special is in effect, and it gets you 15 percent off the $19.95 fee, for a savings of $2.99.

 

Smooth Traffic School’s online course is mobile friendly, so you can take the course on your tablet or smart phone as well as your computer. The course itself is described as “entertaining and informative,” and Smooth Traffic School promises plenty of videos, cartoons, and jokes, which means that this is a comedy course. Whether it’s worthy of actual guffaws depends entirely on your sense of humor, but it’s nice that Smooth Traffic School at least attempts to keep you entertained as you review traffic safety protocol and reacquaint yourself with California’s driving laws. Customer service is available seven days a week, which is also nice. Many traffic schools only provide support during weekday business hours and sometimes on Saturday mornings. Although no support hours are listed on the website, Smooth Traffic School promises phone and email support during extended hours. Perhaps it’s because Smooth Traffic School is so new that we were unable to find any reviews of the course on Yelp and similar sites. But perhaps no news is good news!

How it Works

Once you sign up and pay the fee, you can start taking the course right away. Each chapter is followed by a short quiz to help you prepare for the final exam, which consists of 25 multiple choice questions. You have to get a 70 percent on the final exam to pass the course, which should be a piece of cake, considering it’s an open book test and you can look back through the lessons for the right answers. But if you do somehow manage to fail, you’ll get a second attempt at passing. If you fail your second attempt, you’ll have to retake the course. After you pass the final, the completion certificate will arrive at the DMV and court within 3 business days. It’s always a good idea to follow up with the court to ensure they have everything they need to mask your ticket.

What We Like About Smooth Traffic School

We like the price match guarantee and the Deal of the Day, and we like the fact that you can take the course on all of your mobile devices if you wish. We also like the extended customer support hours, which many online traffic schools don’t offer.

What We Don’t Like About Smooth Traffic School

Since Smooth Traffic School doesn’t mention whether their course is timed, there’s a chance you’ll encounter timers on each chapter, which keeps you on that chapter until the time – usually 40 minutes – runs out. Although timers are no longer required by the DMV, some traffic schools still use them, and it drives many students crazy. If this is a concern for you, we recommend you give Smooth Traffic School a quick call to determine whether they use timers.

Rating for Smooth Traffic School

Smooth Traffic School has a number of perks that many other schools don’t offer, and their price is pretty standard – and even lower than standard if you take advantage of the price match guarantee or the Deal of the Day. Smooth Traffic School earns a respectable, above-average rating of four stars.

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