How to Buy Quality Eye Glasses Online & Save Hundreds
My employer has a rather generous vision plan that covers $155 towards new eyeglass frames and 100% of the lenses through insurance provider VSP. With the new insurance, I was thinking I might actually be able to get away with simply paying the co-pay of $25. I was so excited! I may actually get to try on some glasses, in person, and see what they’d look like on my face. Wow, what a privilege!
My excitement quickly faded before my appointment as I started trying on glasses and looking at the little price tags on each of them. $300, $350, $400… things were not looking good. Sure, there were a few cheap, outdated frames that I could get for around $200, but the quality of these frames were not even close to being as good as the quality of the frameless memory titanium, anti-reflective coated glasses that I had purchased online about 3 years earlier for under $40. Equivalent glasses were actually 10 times more at the local optometrist!
How to Buy Glasses Online and Save a Lot of Money
If you’re running into the same issues (and you will when you visit your local optometrist), here’s how you can go about buying your glasses online:
1. You’ll Need a Prescription
If your old eyeglass prescription is still bring clear vision in your present lenses, then call up your optometrist to get your prescription. Note that you will not be able to use a contact lens prescription (the two are different). If your prescription is outdated, then you will have to go to an optometrist to get a new one. General eye exams are usually covered by your vision insurance, if you have one. Check with your vision insurance provider to be certain.
Here are some terms you’ll need to be aware of when ordering.
- OD (Oculus Dexter) means your right eye
- OS (Oculus Sinister) means your left eye
- The Sph or Spherical correction is how near (-) or far (+) sighted you are. If you have ‘PL’, that means you are at zero.
- Add is for bifocals
- Cylinder and Axis is for astigmatism, meaning that your eyeball is not perfectly spherical.
2. You’ll Need your Pupillary Distance
Pupillary Distance (PD) is the distance between your pupils, usually measured in millimeters. Pupillary distance generally falls between 54 and 68 mm. Optometrists will usually take this measurement during your exam, but if they don’t, then you can measure the distance yourself with a mirror and a ruler.
Most optometrists will not write this number on your prescription, because they know that it gives you the ability to shop online. Ask them to write this number in, if they haven’t.
The image below represents an example of a pupillary distance of 62mm.
3. Be Careful of Add-Ons
Eyeglass retailers online will often suck you in with extremely low advertised prices (i.e. ‘Complete set of glasses for only $9!’, however they have add-ons that really crank up the price – anti-reflective coating, anti-scratch, poly-carbonate lens, etc.
The best thing to do is to figure out exactly what you want, and then find out what 3 or 4 different online retailers would sell for that exact same model, so that you are comparing apples to apples. For instance, if you know you want a memory titanium frame with a slight tint and anti-reflective coating then shop around for that exact same pair elsewhere. Some include the add-ons and others don’t, so go with the final price, not the advertised price that gets you in.
4. Shop Around
When shopping for glasses, don’t worry about the brand. A pair that I purchased under a generic brand was much better than any of the designer comparables that I saw at the optometrist. There are a few retailers that seem to have extremely competitive prices, that I’d recommend comparing to the others:
Buying Glasses Discussion:
- Have you bought glasses online? Share your story and tips.
- If you’re afraid to buy glasses online, why?
- Where did you find the best pair of cheap glasses?
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Local optometrists charge way too much for crappy frames, so they drove me online also. I bought a pair through Zenni. Not a pretty site, but good deals. Can’t believe how cheap you can actually get them for.
Were you able to get VSP to cover your online purchase?
I think that glasses are one of those things it is worth paying full price for, since once you divide the total price (especially after insurance) by the number of days you will wear them, they cost pennies or less.
I got beautiful Versace frames with anti-reflective/anti-scratch coating, and am glad every day that I did. I would NEVER buy frames without trying them on, and I would never buy anything cheap. My frames prior to this were I think Calvin Klein…even if I paid $400 for them (and I’m pretty sure they were significantly cheaper than that) my estimate is that after the 4 years I wore them before they finally broke irreparably, they cost about 27 cents a day. That is not a lot of money.
i like the idea of buying online for cheaper, but how do you suggest finding a frame you look good in without being able to try it on?
BTW nice new logo!
My dad has done some shopping online for glasses, but ditched the idea to go “traditional.” Ah well.
I’m not afraid of buying almost anything online so long as it’s from a reputable resource. A fifteen minute search can find that out, so no real worries. If someone hates a website/resource, they’ll blog about it.
(Random: if you Google “shaun connell” you should be able to see a flame somewhere on the first page. Hehe. I still don’t know who the person was/is or anything.)
I’m actually going to the eye doctor for the first time in 3 years on Thursday, so perfect timing!
I’m planning on buying at least a pair or two online: I need a specific kind of sunglass for evenings, due to my sleeping disorder, and they’d cost above $400, if i bought them from a local store: from zenni they’re 40. I’ll probably pick up one or 4 in addition: at ten bucks a pop, i’m STILL way below the money i stashed in my HSA for this year (for glasses, specifically).
-=allen
You’re right- watch out for those add-ons. They make everything cost more!
I found you via Wisebread’s Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs. Congrats on making the list!
I’ve gotten eyeglasses at zenni optical. I liked them and recommend them if you can wait a couple of weeks. Just be sure to inspect them closely when you receive them. If you’re really doubtful of the lenses, you can take them to our optometrist to test the prescription of them. They should be able to do it for free.
frame and lens shapes are largely similar accross collections of eyewear. The $6.95 eyeglasses I ordered from http://www.coastalcontacts.com were of lower quality as far as the frames, but I could see from the picture that the temple bars didn’t quite match the frame front, so I knew I was going to sand them down and re-paint them before I ordered them (they came with a hard case, cleaning cloth and screw driver kit that more than covered the cost and they arrived in two weeks or less). Zenni’s order took longer, but the frames were fine. My insurance was a joke at Kaiser – $175 doesn’t even over the lenses I wanted. If you find a pair of frames then there are online lens places that will put in single-vision CR-39 with Transitions VI and Cryzal Avance AR coating for $173 (still much cheaper than local). http://www.LBWEyewear.com and http://www.greatglasses.com even have a new collection that comes close to Mykita or ic! Berlin style frames.
I bought a pair of plastic black rimmed glasses at goggles4u.com and they’re great. I got a measuring tape and did the best I could with the measurements and hoped they would fit, and they do. At first, they were a bit crooked, but i just bent it a little the right way. Definitely beats forking over hundreds of dollars (I don’t even have vision insurance) at the store.
I discovered after breaking my glasses in Hong Kong that the prices there are quite reasonable. I was able to have an eye exam and purchase frames and lenses for around $140 and the whole affair was done in less than 24 hours. My only complaint is that they aren’t Transitions lenses. I think I’ll try this online method soon, if I can get Transitions!
Last time I needed new glasses, I actually went to the doctor’s office to try them on. I made a note of the pair I liked (~$400 if I remember correctly)- brand name, any little numbers on the inside of the temples, etc. Then I Googled. Came up with FramesRX.com- you can order them from start to finish right there if you have your prescription, but since my eyesight is really bad, I wanted to make sure the lenses were exactly right.
Once I received the frames, I took them back to the doctor’s office and had them do the lenses for me. They charged about $40 to use frames I already had, but the $260 saved was well worth it!
Advice from an optician;
First, let me start by saying to the folks here that have made a sccsessful purchase of eyewear online, congratulations, you were lucky, and probably have a simple single vision Rx. But if you have a more complex Rx (astigmatism, high power, bi-focal or no-line lens, ect) you WILL have a difficult time getting eyewear produced by an on-line vendor accuratly. There are measurements they can’t take over the net. Just a few….
*PD; (pupilary distance) This is the distance between your eyes. Most people are not symmetrical, one eye in slightly in more than the other. An optician will use a Corneal Reflex Pupilometer to take this critical measurement. It measures monocularly (center of the bridge of your nose out) exactly where light enters each of your eyes.
( did you know light doesn’t enter exactly in the center of your eye?) You cannot measure accurately this monocular distance with a ruler in a mirror.
MRP; (Major Reference Point)This is the point, verically, Where your eye centers in the chosen frame. A “virtual frame” try-on will not exactly “sit” on your nose like the real thing.Unless the frame is in “as worn position” you cannot take this measurement accurately.
Optical Center; This is the point on a lens where light travels through perfectly strait. EVERY other point on a lens, light is bent and deviates creating a prismatic effect. The Optical Center should be placed directly at the PD (see above) AND at the MRP (see above). This is most important on higher Rx’s (the stronger a lens is, the more light gets bent (prism) away from the optical center) AND also important if you have different powers in each eye, ( different power lenses create different amounts of prism, so one eye may get a prism effect while the other doesn’t)
Pantoscopic Tilting; Most eyewear works better with “PT”. Most frames sit on the face with this “tilt” (bottom of the frame closer to the cheeks than to the brow line.) This tilt is usually 2-10 degrees. For every 2 degrees of tilt, you effectively lower the Optical Center a full millimeter. How many degrees do yours tilt? And you know this precisely by…..?
Vertex Distance; This is how far away the back of your lens sits from your eye. Frames can sit at varying distances from your eye (i.e. metal frames sit further away than plastic frames) Just as you can move a magnifying glass closer, then further from a viewed object and get differeing size images, it’s the same with your RX. Vertex measurement are many times needed to adjust the Rx for patient comfort and vision.
The above is just a small fraction in the equation of delivery of quality eyewear. A well trained and educated optician not only takes the measurements above, but also can advise you on lens materials ( there are over 10 availible today) and on lens designs. (actually hundreds from spherical, aspherical, atoric, PAL’s, ect)
There are also hundreds of treatments that may improve performance. (you don’t have to buy them if you feel you won’t benifit from them!…But, you probably will enjoy their benifits)A well trained optician can explain these to you…How do you know the performance or benifit unless someone tells you, plus you can ask for more explaination.
A few last things; Glasses are not a commodity (like contact lenses)They are custom made one at a time. They are not “one size fits all”.
Glasses actual costs ARE lower than what your optician sells them for.You are not just paying for glasses from your optician, his time, skill, and knowledge are worth something, just as your time at work is valuable. When you buy glasses, you are not just getting “glasses”. You get expert advise, measurements, adjustments and hands on selection.
I had a patient ask me once, “What’s the most expensive glasses?” My answer, “Ones that don’t work, hold up or aren’t made properly.” If they don’t work or are a pain to use, how valuable is that?
And finally, please, if you get your glasses and they need adjustments or verification, you should offer some payment for the service. Do you work for free?
Glasses and contacts are medical devices. Optometrists spend 8 years in school and $200,000 to prescribe eyeglasses. Opticians spend 2 years in school to learn how to adjust and fabricate glasses. The tools needed to make a pair of glasses cost $25,000-$35,000.
There is a very large difference in the quality of frames. I spent much time adjusting state provided medicaid frames versus quality frames. The quality of plastic, composition of metal,types of hinges, ect. Many cheap plastic lenses are made in Japan and actually flake. I have seen paint completely peel off the temples of plastic frames in less than 6 months due to improper clear coat.
There is also a large difference in lens coatings. For example, inexpensive nonglare coating can peel and get foggy within months of purchasing new glasses. The more expensive nonglare will last years longer. Ask anyone that has purchased Walmart glasses.
If you’re worried about them going bad “in a few months” then buy a new one for EVERY month online! At $10 each and $5 flat shipping for zenni optical, that’s still only $125. Hundreds less then at the Optometrists.
You should try GlassesUSA. You can buy $7 eyeglasses from most online retailers and you receive a low-quality frame with lenses that pop out OR you can spend another $10-20 for a high-quality pair of eyeglasses including prescription lenses. It’s worth the extra money!
While the optician brings up a lot of valid reasons to be cautious I think the online option is a really good alternative for many reasons. My in store shopping experiences have been much more negative than most of my online purchases. Usually a store has some salesperson, not the actual optician, helping you pick out frames from behind a counter, often steering you towards particular styles that may or may not be flattering. The selection online is fantastic, especially with Rx sunglasses, and if you know what shape of frame you want you will have thousands of options.
One big thing to look for when buying online, however, is the size of the frame. Pay close attention to the measurements. I have a beautiful pair of Rx sunglasses that I can never wear because they always fall off my face since they are too big.
My Zenni Optical glasses were $92 (progressives, transitions, anti-glare, etc) and I’ve had them since July and the anti-reflection coating has started peeling off – both lenses – and stuck at halfway. I could deal with ALL the way but now I can’t use them. I’ve emailed as to how to get it off or fixed – not much chance there – but no response… I have worn glasses all my life and know how to take good care of them…
Great article. As other commenters have pointed out, you are giving up something when you order online, and opticians provide additional service and expertise that is not available from the online retailers. But, you’re saving a heck of a lot of money too.
I think it’s a lot like going to Best Buy and having them help you pick out all of the stuff you need to set up your home theater and then having their professional install service come set it up, making sure the T.V. is the right distance from the couch, the surround sound speakers are in the right place, etc. You’ll pay a lot, but you’re getting extra help and service. Alternately, you could save lots of money on your home theater if you shop around for the components individually, educate yourself using online home theater guides on how to set it up correctly, and do the installation yourself. It may not be quite as good as when the professionals do it (but on the other hand, maybe it will be). Either way, you’ll have saved tons of money.
Yeah you definitely want to watch out forr anything you ahve to use to add on. I agree with the last commentor. Try some of those things and save some of that money.
I had a simular experience when I had to buy a new pair of glasses to replace the ones I lost. When I went to the optician they tried to charge me almost £300 for a pair of rimless spectecals. I was told the price for my frames would be a little more expensive because of my strong prescription.(an index of 1.6) So instead of getting taken to the blody cleaners by a high street optician I decided to search for glasses online. I mean they couldn’t be any more than I was just about to pay.
Thank God I found Brill24. co.uk
I was able to buy a pair of rimless “Mackay“frames with anti refective, scratch resistant coating, and EMI coating for about 50 Euro. My regular optician tried to charge me for each one of these extra features.The coolest thing about the website in my opinion was the fitting room. You can upload a photo of yourself and try on all the frames you’d like before buying. After loging in and selecting my glasses I procced to to fill in my prescription information. The next morning I woke up with an email from Brille24 stating that I had entered my prescription information incorrect. After correcting my prescription information my glasses arrived after only 12 days!!!!
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