The basic driver improvement course is once in a lifetime

MCL 257.320d(3)(g) is one line long: an individual is ineligible if "the individual previously successfully completed a basic driver improvement course." There is no renewal period, no five-year reset, and no second bite.

The state knows

Subsection (5) requires the Secretary of State to keep a computerised database of everyone who has attended a basic driver improvement course and everyone who has successfully completed one. Subsection (6) says information in that database about an individual "must be maintained for the life of that individual", and that the database is used for deciding eligibility under subsections (3) and (4).

So this is not an honour system. Eligibility is decided from a state record before you are ever notified, which is also why an eligibility notice arriving in the post is a meaningful signal: the state has already looked.

What "successfully completed" means

Completion is the trigger, not enrolment. A driver who started a course years ago and did not finish it has not used the once-in-a-lifetime chance. A driver who finished one has, whichever approved sponsor they finished it with, and whether or not they remember doing it.

If you are not sure, the Secretary of State is the office that can tell you what your own record says. Ordering a copy of your driving record before you pay for anything is cheap and it settles the question.

What happens if you take it anyway

Nothing good. The points programme in MCL 257.320d(1) only withholds points when the state has found you eligible and an approved sponsor reports your completion inside the window. Paying for a second course does not create eligibility that the statute says you do not have.

The exception is a court order. MCL 257.320d(17) says a driver ordered by a court to take the course takes it whether or not they are eligible under subsections (3) and (4), and that the Secretary of State enters the points for a driver who completes a court-ordered course without being otherwise eligible. That is a course you take because a judge said so, not a course that keeps anything off your record.

The practical advice

Because it happens once, the question is which ticket to spend it on. A three-point violation is worth more than a two-point one. That is a judgement about your own record and your own risk, and it is the kind of question worth asking a lawyer before you enrol rather than after.