Expensive Spectacles!

1.4K Posts


Good morning everyone,
I'm new to this part of the MSE forums but have been a member for many years, posting regularly on the "Savings and Investments" and "Pensions" forums.
I was wondering whether anyone else has had my experience with trying to purchase glasses for a quite strong prescription?
Briefly, my prescription is:
Right eye sph: +6.5, Cyl: -3.5
Left eye: sph: +7.5, Cyl -4.5
So at the extreme end of the spectrum of lens requirements.
If I go for the thinnest lens options, using the highest index material, my local optician who provided the eye test to determine my prescription has quoted me £816 for a pair of glasses!
I nearly fell off my chair. £816 !!!
The last time I bought a pair they were £500, four years ago, but apparently, I was given 25% off at the time because I was on their annual contact lens program too.
I have tried to look online at various providers, Specsavers, Glasses Direct, Glasses2you etc., and the online lens selector generally only goes up to a Cyl of -4.0. In the case of Specsavers (I seem to recall) the Cyl was not limited, but the Sph was limited to 6.0.
I am hopeful that if I find a good reputation online provider I can end up paying at least one or two hundred pounds less while not compromising on lens thicknesses. When I was a kid I pretty much had bottle-bottom glasses and I don't want to return to those days in my dotage. (I'm 53 by the way).
Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read this.
If you want to be rich, live like you're poor; if you want to be poor, live like you're rich.
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£800+ is exceptionally expensive! Your lenses aren't even complex, just strong.
I can't imagine the high street providers don't dispense high prescriptions, but perhaps limit their online offerings because higher prescriptions need to be more precisely fitted (which I suspect is one reason other online companies don't do above certain limits). Maybe you could phone up some high street opticians locally and see if they can give you a ballpark figure.
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