Driving lesson packages

BogMonkey

When you pay for one of those 12 lesson packages, do you have to do them in a weekly schedule (i.e. they assign you a lesson every monday), or can you schedule the lessons yourself?

Also, do you usually have to pay it all up front, or can you split it into monthly payments?

Alanstrainor

Talk to the instructor, each could be different. Also, don't sign into a package until you've had a couple of lessons and like the instructor.

BogMonkey

If I decide I don't like the instructor, what would I do, would I just pay for the lesson(s) individually at a higher fee?

The_Nipper_One

I'm not too sure about paying a 12 lesson pack in installments since they usually give discounts on those packs. I couldn't really see a problem with it as long as they had some kind of contractual agreement that you would be taking the 12 with them.

As for the timetable; the first week I had 2 lessons to get me over the initial bump, then had one a week for the next month. After that I took a break while practicing for about 3 months, and then had one lesson every 2 - 3 weeks. It's now coming up on my test time, and I'm having one a week, with the final lesson the morning of my test.

As far as I know there's nothing to stop you having a lesson every day for almost 2 weeks and doing all 12 lessons at once! Though you will still be limited by the initial 6 month waiting period before you can take a test (since the date of the issue of your first provisional).

EDIT:
Alanstrainor makes a good point also.

greyc

My Instructor offered a discount for the 12 lessons but if you didn't want to pay the full amount up front he charged the full price for each lesson but gave the discount at the end. I suppose in that way he wasn't losing out if I only ended up doing 5 or 6 lessons.

I think it was €300 for the 12 lessons, but I paid €30 for each of the first 10 lessons, and the last 2 were free. I thought it was a good way of doing it.

I also wouldn't necessarily go with whoever is offering the cheapest lessons, like most things you generally pay for what you get. Just because someone is very cheap doesn't mean they might be bad, but you'd have to wonder why are they charging less than others in the area. Of course if someone is dearer than everyone else it doesn't mean they're better either. You're better off trying to get some recommendations if possible.

BogMonkey

I rang them up there and they said I can do the lessons whenever I like, and I can pay as I go if I want. The 12 lesson package is €290 so thats a pretty decent package, considering I heard lessons go from between €30-55 per lesson.

greyc: Yeah I agree that you often get what you pay for. In my case I don't mind since I already had a drivers license in Canada so I'm not a complete beginner, I just need to do the 12 mandatory lessons. However, I also learned with an automatic so I don't even know how to operate the pedals of a manual, it'll take me a while to get the hang of that. I hear its much easier to get a license in Canada and USA, but I also hear that they don't make you parallel park for the test here. That was by far the trickiest thing I had to learn in Canada, I failed the first test cuz I touched a dummy car that I was trying to parallel park behind. In Canada when you do lessons in the winter, they teach you how to maneuver your way out of snow piles and stuff like that which was great fun.

BogMonkey

Yeah you get what you pay for. They never even showed up for the driving lesson, and when I rang them up to ask them if the lesson was still on today, they said "I'll get back to you on it", and they never called back. Good thing I didn't pay for the lessons beforehand.