As a former driving instructor and creator of various online driver education programs, I thought I would update this iDriveSafely review for 2022. This iDriveSafely review was originally written way back in 2011. I then updated this review in 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and now in 2022. This review of iDriveSafely is fresh as of January of this year.
My original iDriveSafely review was the very first online traffic school I ever reviewed back when I first started this site. You can see more of my online traffic school reviews here.
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Initial Impressions Of iDriveSafely
I first became familiar with the folks who run iDriveSafely back in 2011 when I was training commercial truck drivers. Due to some projects I was working on, I actually went to their office in Carlsbad, California for a few meetings with them. That’s when I discovered that iDriveSafely is truly a legit company. Their office was filled with people from programmers to writers to customer service staff, etc. I really didn’t expect that for some reason.
As far as the course itself, overall, I found iDriveSafely to be of higher quality than the vast majority of its competitors. As of this updated 2022 review, iDriveSafely has had more than 6 million people use their course (I like to call them guinea pigs). In addition, they have maintained an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. So the company itself is solid and they have a good reputation.
Based on this info, if you just want the fast answer, YES – iDriveSafely is legit and it is one of the better online driving schools you can sign up with whether it’s for traffic school, drivers ed, insurance reduction, or just about any other reason you’d need to sign up for it.
iDriveSafely Is Boring!
Just a little warning before you sign up. While iDriveSafely has always been one of my top-rated online traffic schools, there really is no such thing as a fun traffic school. Sure, some online traffic schools use comedy or claim they are “fun” but c’mon, taking traffic school just plain sucks, let’s face it.
I don’t want to give people the impression that signing up for iDriveSafely is going to be “super happy fun time.” I’m warning you now, it’s going to be boring. But at least when you do it online, you can take it from the comfort of your own home and still get points reduced, tickets dismissed, or insurance rates reduced. And of all the online driving schools I’ve reviewed, iDriveSafely is about the most pain-free course around.
How Long Does iDriveSafely Take?
iDriveSafely meets the state minimum requirements, but each state is a little different. For example, in the state of California, you can get your iDriveSafely course done in as little as an hour or so. You can literally just blast through the pages, pass the 6 quizzes during the course which you can take as many times as you need, then pass the “final exam” and you’re done.
However, in other states, like the state of Texas, it’s going to take you about 6 hours. That’s because Texas has a state requirement that forces online traffic schools to have a timer on each page. Yes, it’s super annoying, so have a Netflix movie ready to go and feel free to spread the course out over a few days. You can click here and choose your state to see how long it will take.
Course Difficulty: EASY!!
To be honest, I’ve never really taken an online traffic school that was hard. They are all pretty easy. There are two big issues with online traffic schools. The first problem has to do with “identity verification systems” that state governments require for ticket dismissal courses. These verification systems are known to fail quite a bit. When it fails, the course locks you out until you call customer service, and hold times for some of these online traffic schools are ridiculous. Fortunately, iDriveSafely just updated their authentication system and it’s MUCH more accurate than it used to be. This was the #1 issue with iDriveSafely but I’m happy to report that as of 2019, this system now works properly.
The second biggest problem is the boredom factor. These courses are boring as heck! While performing my updated 2022 iDriveSafely review, I was happy to find that there was a lot that has been updated such as their graphics, animations, and videos. In some states, you can also sign up for the video based course which is a bit easier to get through for some people. In any case, the course is a little boring, but at least it’s easy.
Fortunately, iDriveSafely works very well on phones and tablets. Believe it or not, many online traffic schools and drivers ed programs still don’t work well on phones. So if you plan on going through your coursework on a mobile device, iDriveSafely is a good pick.
My Overall Opinion Of iDriveSafely In 2022
Overall, even after all these years of reviewing iDriveSafely I can still recommend them. It’s probably the easiest online traffic school I’ve found to date. I’ve had them listed on my site for more than 8 years now and I have received very few complaints about them. Most of the complaints I have received had to do with the state-mandated identity verification systems that have been fixed as of 2019. That’s why I’m still confident in recommending them. Also, you are free to post about your own experience in the comments section below. Most people don’t tend to come back to share their experience, and that’s ok, but if you’d like to come back and share it sure would be helpful for others to read! I do think iDriveSafely could use another fresh update with some of the course content (some videos and images are clearly pretty old), but in the end, it doesn’t make a huge difference.
How Much Does iDriveSafely Cost?
Pricing for iDriveSafely varies by state to state, but you can use this link to get an automatic discount during checkout. I also have a page with iDriveSafely coupons here.
iDriveSafely Sign Up Process
Signing up for iDriveSafely is easy. In some states, you can even start without entering any payment info. Here’s an example of the payment screen with the “pay later” option.
The iDriveSafley Identity Authentication System Was Updated
Most states require some form of identity authentication. This is the government’s way of trying to make sure that YOU are really YOU taking the course. Believe it or not, a lot of people have others take the course for them. Shocking, right?!
Some states have a voice authentication system. This is the one that was giving iDriveSafely and other online traffic schools so many problems for so many years. It resulted in terrible Yelp ratings and poor reviews on many review sites. Fortunately, iDriveSafely reviews are starting to recover since this system was updated in 2019.
In other states, such as California, it is just a series of “personal” questions that you need to answer, then answer again correctly later on when they want to “authenticate”. It’s not the greatest system in the world, but it’s easy to do and the government requires it. Don’t forget your answers because they will ask you those questions again randomly throughout the course. If you get more than a couple wrong then your account gets locked and you’ll have to call customer service. Here are the questions I was asked at the beginning of the course:
Taking The iDriveSafely Traffic School Course
Just like my original iDriveSafely review in 2011, I once again had 8 sections to complete plus a final exam at the end. Your state might be different, but in general, there aren’t too many differences between states. The iDriveSafely traffic school course covered sections like drunk driving, speeding, right of way laws, distracted driving, and other subjects you’d expect to see during traffic school. Here’s a screenshot of the table of contents for the course I was taking:
The iDriveSafely Section Quizzes
After each section, they asked 10 multiple choice questions. I was required to get an 80% on each quiz in order to move forward. I really didn’t put in much effort but I was still able to pass them all just fine. Before each quiz, they have a review page that pretty much tells you everything you need to know in order to pass the quiz. I purposely did bad on one of them just to see what happens and you basically just need to review the section and take the test over again. You keep doing that until you pass. Here are a couple of the first questions I revied after the first section. Note that these are Illinois based questions since that’s where I live so that’s the course I was taking.
Course Quality Of iDriveSafely
The course quality of iDriveSafely has gotten better since 2019 as they’ve upgraded some of their videos, graphics, animations, etc. With that said, the iDriveSafely traffic school course is very basic. You can sign up for their video-based course which looks a bit more modern, but they keep the text-based course simple on purpose. They know you don’t really care about “advanced features” you likely just want to get the course done as fast as you can. With their minimalist setup, each page loads fast and you can get through everything the fastest way possible. Here’s an example of what some of the videos in iDriveSafely look like:
You Can Pause And Continue The iDriveSafely Course At Anytime
This is a pretty standard feature now with all online traffic schools. Basically, they keep track of your progress. You can log in and out anytime from any computer or mobile device. Their course responds well on mobile devices and works like a charm on good ol’ laptops and desktops.
iDreiveSafely Course Timers
This is the worst part of any online traffic school and iDriveSafely is no exception. The course timer sucks! If you’re really lucky, your state won’t require that the course is timed (I’m lookin’ at you California!). If that’s the case, congratulations! You should be done pretty quickly. For the rest of us schlubs, we’ve gotta wait for the course timer to count down before we can proceed. Doesn’t matter if you already read everything, you still have to wait. So annoying. Here’s a screenshot from my course discussing the timer and why it’s there:
iDriveSafely’s Final Exam
After you make it through all the sections, you’ll be required to take a final exam. This is where they test you on everything you learned throughout the course. If you put in a tiny ounce of effort, you’ll do fine. If you don’t put in any effort, you might have to retake it a few times, but in most states, you can’t fail it. As of this updated iDriveSafely review for 2022, I’m happy to say that the final exam is just as easy as it has ever been. Honestly, if you can’t pass the final exam, you probably shouldn’t be on the road anyway!
iDriveSafely Completion Certificate & Court Notifications
As long as you didn’t procrastinate, no problem. Once you’re done, they send the certificate to you or the courts for free and you don’t have to worry about it. The problem is, “processing” can take a few days. If you need the completion certificate expedited because you waited until the last minute, it’s going to cost you extra. And when I say it’s going to cost you extra, I mean a lot extra! These prices might be different for you, but these were the shipping options I was given. Yikes!
Final Thoughts About My iDriveSafley Review
Well, I hope you found my newly revised iDriveSafely review for 2022 to be helpful. If you’re thinking about signing up for iDriveSafely, it’s a safe bet. They’ve been around for a long time with 5 million customers already. If you had a particularly good or bad experience with iDriveSafely, please let me know or leave a message at the bottom of this page.
Good luck!!
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Review last updated on January 18, 2022
Its been more than a week and i still havnt recieved my certificate for passing my permit exam. NEED ANSWERS PLEASE
My daughter finished 5/31 & today is 7/13 & haven’t received her certificate either – several emails sent with no response – called several times (2 different numbers) call never answered, just sat on hold for up to & exceeding 30 mins!
As of August 2015, in Texas, you cannot take the course for free before you pay for it, payment is required up front.
3/4 of the way through this course and the verification answers are wrong! None of them are even related to me. Have been on hold for 15 minutes so far, I suspect this is probably some small business run out of a home. The recording says we are experiencing longer than usual wait times, but I know that’s a lie. I’ll probably go for a refund before I fail my last verification question. Don’t recommend this site at all.