How much for varifocals??

[Spaghettio]

Just been to the optician and been told I need varifocals.

Picked out the frames £270! Bloody hell.

Then the varifocals. The guy went through the different options and I went for Varilux Physio varifocals - which are on the higher end of the prices, but not the most expensive.

Total cost £500!!!

That seems insanely expensive, but I know varifocals can be much more expensive than normal lenses.

This was a Boots Optician, so will get quotes from Specsavers and other high street opticians, but is that the sort of price I should be looking at?

(On the upside, that's a lot of Boots points..... )

I hated my reactive lenses when I had them - the tint never fully disappeared and always had me with the slight aura of psycho serial killer from the 1970s.

Do reactive glasses work when driving?

It depends what you are driving. They work fine in a topless car.

I have had reactive for over thirty years and I found that they hardly go dark at all inside a car and also that the level of maximum tint reduces significantly as the ambient temperature increases. I used to have to use sunglasses in sunny and warm places.

I now have XTRActive lenses. They go moderately dark inside a car and very dark outside even in very warm countries. The downside is that they always have a slight tint and they take noticeably longer to clear when you go from outside to inside.

Re getting lenses fitted in existing frames
Specsavers said they would only fit in their own frames. Don't know why as the frames aren't the expensive bit. And made me sign a disclaimer in case they broke frames.

Another vote for Asda. I have used them for years for my glasses, also varifocals. Last time I paid around £140 for two pairs, one of them varifocal sunglasses. I have never had an issue with my eye prescription from them.

I found that reactive glasses didn't react when driving because of the glass in the windscreen, so I just have separate sunglasses now.

I used to have reactive lenses, but they didn't change back fast enough when I went indoors.

I was almost talked into varifocals today, but decided that I was fine with getting stronger distance glasses. They said that it might make it harder than it is now to read close print, but I have my current glasses still if I want to switch back to those for reading or anything. But I hope that I can still get by with just one pair for a while longer - I don't mind taking my glasses off for reading small tags or whatever. I've now got a complex lens voucher, which I thought might be quite useful, but turns out to be a total of £14 off my incredibly expensive lenses. Oh well, any little helps, as they say (and I wasn't at Asda!).

I went into Specsavers this morning and have ordered my new specs. Got the 2 for 1 deal with one pair as sunglasses so I can drive with them on.

I went for a similar level of varifocals as the ones I looked at in Boots, but the much lower cost of frames brought the total cost right down.

They've said they'll do the first pair to start with and once I'm happy that I've adjusted to wearing them (hopefully!) to let them know and then they'll do the sunglasses.

Total cost for two pairs of varifocals £318. So £180 cheaper than Boots. I wait to be convinced on the after sales customer service, but they were very nice helping me today.

For those who answered my questions - I collected my new specs today.

The distance vision is amazing and makes such a difference, but the close vision is not great.

I have to look right at the bottom of the glasses, so far to the bottom that I'm mostly viewing the frame. I've had them on all afternoon and I have a banging headache.

Is this a "you'll get used to them" problem or a "get them checked they're not right" problem? Because if I wear them all day tomorrow I'm really going to struggle.