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Miss Thrifty8 April 10, 2016
I’ve been playing around with Vision Compare, a free comparison tool for contact lens wearers. It’s simple to use: type in your contact lens make and model. Up pops a list of all the online retailers selling boxes of the lenses, with the prices. As ever, substantial savings can be made on high street optician prices.
If you wear contact lenses, the site is worth a look (no pun intended), irrespective of whether you currently purchase your contact lenses online or in-store. It has been around for a couple of years now, but has recently expanded its range of retailers to seven online contact lens stores, including low-priced Feel Good Contacts.
These used to be a contact lens comparison tool on MoneySavingExpert, but this met its demise because of the high “technical resource required to keep it running.” The Vision Compare site is kept up to date, from what I can see. However if you haven’t bought contact lenses online before, it is still worth checking out the MSE tips page.
One current shortcoming of the Vision Compare tool is that it doesn’t include own-brand lens equivalents. Boots and Specsavers, for example, badge up their own versions of certain manufacturers’ products. It’s nothing a quick google won’t sort. I wear silicone hydrogel Clariti 1 Day lenses: apparently these are known as Oxylens 1 Day at Boots and the Specsavers version is called easyvision umere. It is the Clariti version listed on the site.
Finally, do bear in mind that to purchase contact lenses online, you will need to send the retailer a copy of your contact lens prescription – and it will need to be less than a year old.
Image credit: LF; image used under a Creative Commons license.
8 Responses to “How to Get Cheap Contact Lenses”
Lovelygrey says:
Coincidentally I’ve just blogged about the cheap glasses I’ve bought today. I didn’t realise quite how much you can save on both specs and contact lenses until I started to look into it. I couldn’t afford to pay around the £250 mark for glasses like I’ve done in the past and thought it needed a bit of investigation. x
April 11, 2016 at 5:59 am
James Dean says:
I have been wearing contact lenses for years and got them form the Optometrist. Basically gouged on pricing. Currently wearing daily lenses, and it can get expensive. Recently been buying the Crystal brand from here at under a dollar a day and they are fantastic. Well for me anyway! http://www.contactlenses.co.uk/details787_167.html
April 22, 2016 at 10:18 pm
Francesca says:
Thanks for this – I had no idea such a thing existed! Love finding new ways to save money. I will definitely be trying this! x
April 26, 2016 at 10:01 pm
Jon says:
I wear glasses but have never really been ready to make that ‘jump’ to contact lenses
I suppose I don’t mind wearing them or how they look on my face and I tend to buy one set of frames a year in a 2 for 1 SpecSavers type deal so don’t really spend more than £120 odd on my eye wear in a year
My other half has contacts and she paid £25 odd to Vision Express each month BUT her deal includes one pair of glasses a year INCLUDED which I think is a pretty good deal!
May 22, 2016 at 10:58 am
Sue says:
Am new to this blog and just having a read through post and then this post jumped out to me – Help ..
Recently been looking into getting contacts lens but I am to scared of the wearing of them and also daily cost ,
I wear glasses for TV, Driving and long distance but am getting fed up with getting the mark on my nose and irritating on my ears recently..
What are people’s thought ? Help xxxx
November 1, 2016 at 11:50 am
Miss Thrifty says:
Hi Sue – if you are brand new to contact lenses, I’d recommend going through an optometrist first (e.g. Specsavers). You’ll need to have a contact lens eye test and prescription anyway, before you can buy any packs. When I started wearing contact lenses, I had a “training session” at my optometrist (how to put them in, take them out etc.) and a sample pair to wear, to see how I got on with them. As it turned out, the first pair was too big for my piggy-wiggy eyes and really uncomfortable, so I was then issued a smaller pair to try.
If you go this route and contact lenses aren’t for you, at least you’ll know before you have invested in a month’s worth!
November 2, 2016 at 1:54 pm
Nettmann says:
Works fine. i most prefare, daily lenses, they are less dangerours then long time lenses, their you have to be more carefull.
December 7, 2016 at 2:06 pm
Stella says:
Great post you have there. A few tips that could eventually save you some money on contact lenses.
Buy more so you save on delivery fees, if any applicable.
Look for discount codes, coupons or discount on your first purchase as lentiamo does.
Also look for additional benefits that each shop gives you, such a reward scheme, free delivery etc..
Last, have your prescription up to date but most of the online shops, don’t require it.
March 14, 2017 at 12:50 pm