To think nowadays you need a mortgage if you need glasses?

[LarryForPrimeMinister]

Today I went for my usual eye check up. £40.
Asked if I wanted photos taking of behind my eyes to check my eye health additional £20.
My prescription has gone up to - 5 in both eyes.
So needed a pair of frames, £100. Wasn't even the expensive pairs.

And then I was told they have 3 different price ranges for thinning the lenses. If I don't have them thinned they stick out like a eyesore.
£80 to have them slightly thinned, £140 for medium thinned o £200 for super thinned.

Walked out £300 lighter!
Now I wear glasses all the time I am blind as a bat without them but jesus christ I nearly died at the expense.
Two years ago it cost me £200 for the same thing now £100 increase! Aibu to think opticians are taking the piss and becoming like dentists?

My school aged child has a complex prescription, even with the NHS voucher it’s around £350 for glasses

I paid £700 just for l lenses and had them put in last years frames. I’m -10.5 and -11.25 with an astigmatism and being this short sighted is very expensive. £300 would feel like a bargain to me.

I’ve just paid £1100 for ultra thin, customised varifocal with reactolite lenses in Tiffany frames - they will last me at least 2 years - so for £10 a week to look good, feel good and have the best vision I can get it’s worth it
I had to give up contact lenses due to dry eyes with aging and I miss them so much but this is the next best alternative

I just did £140 for two pairs no thinning anti glare on one including eye test and photo at specsavers.

If I needed thinning I’d probably go to Asda as I’ve heard that’s included.

I guess the point is why are we expected to be so severely out of pocket for eye care, rather than it be covered by the nhs, unlike other types of healthcare?

If you use screens for work, your company by law has to supply a voucher for a free eye test and they pay up to a certain amount too for the glasses.

I used Specsavers and got £30 glasses. It was BOGOF so I got two pairs for that price in a sale.

If you want fancy ones then yes, it will cost more.

For those of you who use the online suppliers, how do you arrange to have them fitted? Mine always needs the arms bent as I have non level ears. Plus bending in the middle usually too.

Asda. Two pairs of varifocals for £130. Brilliant service. Wouldn't go anywhere else now.

They only have to pay for the glasses if you use them solely for VDU.

They are, indeed, cheaper, but after a "fun" experience with them refusing to admit my lenses were not what they should be (after the second time I went back) I ended up at the eye hospital. It turned out that my lenses were not the correct ones for my eyes, nor did they correspond to the prescription they had given me, which was not the same as what was in the glasses, nor was it what I needed. After that experience I have stuck with independent opticians and avoided the big chains! As I need varifocals, thinner lenses and correction for astigmatism as well as being very short sighted, my lenses tend to cost several arms and several legs. Sympathy to the OP, I know the feeling.

£300 is a bargain - mine are over £500 a pair.

The problem is that they are essential for people who need them (and cost zero for those who are lucky enough not to), and 'cheap' or 'expensive' mean nothing if the price is more money than you have available to buy them; they're something that you must have, but you nevertheless have to somehow do without if you can't afford the cost.

Just like poor people shouldn't have to sit at home freezing or go without meals, but if they don't have the money needed to pay for heating or food, they are left with little alternative.

I get free tests (terrible eyesight) but even with not very exciting frames, my thinned varifocal lenses at specsavers were about £400. I might look at asda or other providers.

I recommend Specs by Post. Their prices are low, there's a good choice, and customer service excellent. 👓

My last pair of glasses was just over £500 - that was with an offer on the lenses and after an nhs voucher had been removed.

However, I have complex lenses (-12.5) and they were varifocals. The frames were about £160, because they come with a sunglasses that magnet on to the front (due to the strength of my lens I can't get sunglasses of the shelf, and due to price I don't want to get a pair just to be sunglasses, so the extra is worth it. They are so easy to put on and off too).

The cost of glasses has gone up each time I get a new pair- approx every 1-2 years.

@LarryForPrimeMinister You have said you are as blind as a bat without glasses. What strength are your lens?

My understanding is once they become complex ( which i think is -10 for shortsighted but may be wrong) you get a free eye test and a voucher towards the cost of lenses (I thinknit is about £20 per lenses once every 2 years so not a massive amount, but better than nothing.

It's bad when you start becoming nearsighted too and need varifocals.

I had no issues using my local optician until that happened. I then needed to change my lenses every year for a few years.

My local opticians wanted £180 for the frameless style I prefer to wear. Then £350 for the lenses. I couldn't justify £350 again and again as my reading prescription changed.

Asda glasses are slightly less robust, in my experience. BUT they are a lot less expensive and I'll take the trade off. £160 for 2 pairs of glasses (one sunglasses) with thinned, varifocal lenses and anti glare coating. Bargain.

I was going to say the same. If you wear them at other times then it doesn't apply, unless you have a different pair solely for vdu use which would qualify.

Unfortunately not all ASDA stores have opticians - our nearest one is over two hours away.

My eyesight is so bad and my prescription so complicated, the cheapest pair of glasses I can get is around £600. I can no longer wear make up, have short, boring hair that I can't colour due to allergies, and I can only wear trousers and flat shoes due to painful, swollen joints so that does save me a bit of cash.
I have to make sure I save over the year in case I need new specs.

Yes to all of the above but throw in needing prescription sunglasses too! £500! (Got it down to £400 by only having the middle range thinning in the sunglasses and getting the cheapest frame.)

If it's something you use everyday then it works out to about 50p a day, which seems pretty cheap if you consider the alternative isn't being able to see!

I think glasses are actually cheaper than ever before because there are so many alternatives like glasses direct etc. Twenty years ago you could only buy them on the high street and didn't have other options.

Would further the recommendation for asda though.

Also a lot of workplaces will pay for/refund your eye test, might be worth double checking with yours, or even suggesting it if they don't already.

Nearest Costco: 60 miles away!

Thankfully, I'm old, so don't have to pay. I have Varifocals, which bumps the price up.

I really need new glasses, but every time I see some I like, I get so shocked by the price that I can't justify spending that much. I saw some really lovely frames in an independent optician's recently and asked the price: £430, just for the frames!

I looked at the frames in Asda, but there weren't any I liked.

Upsetting, isn't it? The same happened to me, couldn't find them for 2 months and then I found them yesterday!! They'd fallen down in the car between the seat and handbrake. Good luck, keep looking ....(note to self- dont buy Prada spectacles)

Because long long ago, at some point ,Margaret Thatcher took optical services out of the NHS except for those people who it was decided needed them most.So people more at risk of eye disease,children and people receiving some benefits/ low income get free sight tests.Of those,children and the people on some benefits/low income get help with the cost of glasses as well.