By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-11-30 11:47:41 | Word Count: 664
If you’re no stranger to traffic court, you may be wondering how often you can take defensive driving courses in the state of Texas. The answer depends on what you’re trying to accomplish with the course.
If you are taking it to get a traffic fine dismissed or reduced, then the state of Texas only allows you to do this once every twelve months. So even if you paid to take a couple defensive driving courses together, you can only use one of them on your court date or in a twelve month period.
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The state of Texas also sets the prices for the courses that can be used to alleviate traffic fines at $25 dollars. Technically, you can pay a lower price for a course, but you won’t be able to use the completion certificate from that particular defensive driving course in court.
This doesn’t mean you only have to take one course per year or that there are no advantages to taking multiple courses at the lower cost. You are free to take courses to help get your insurance premiums down. Whether you pay $25 for them or less depends on your situation.
If you’ve never had a ticket or haven’t had one this year, you might as well pay the $25 in case you need it for court within the next twelve months. If you’ve already used one to get a ticket dismissed recently and only need it for your insurance, then why pay the $25 dollars if you can pay less?
When you pay for the $25 course, you actually get two certificates; one for court and one for your auto insurance company. Be sure to make a copy of the insurance one because you never know—you might end up having to switch insurance providers before the year is over. Once you present it to your auto-insurance company, they will determine if the defensive driving course you took is sufficient to lower the liability part of your monthly premiums. If they accept the certificate, the lowered premium will remain in effect for three years. That makes it doubly advisable to make a copy of the original, so you have proof for the next three years that you took the course, in case they lose their copy or something else goes wrong.
There are any number of course providers out there, but make sure that the course provider stipulates that they are offering you a TEA (Texas Education Agency) approved course if you need one. However, remember that other non-TEA courses might still be able to help lower your payment with your auto-insurance company.
How often can you take a defensive driving course in Texas? The answer is every one to three years, depending why you will be taking it.
For more information on defensive driving courses, in Texas, visit www.DefensiveDrivingSolutions.com.
