We don't carry insurance for health, vision, or dental. All expenses are paid out of pocket which means each item is carefully considered.
About a year ago, my oldest asked for contacts. I told her she needed to wait until her 16th birthday and she was very prompt on reminding me of this after the school year ended. Our beloved Walmart optician had retired so we called up the first recommended independent optician in the area and booked an appointment.
The first fitting didn't go well and we had to delay until after our summer trip. The 2nd fitting went super well and Charlotte was able to put the contacts in within 5 minutes. Then came the tricky part of finding out cost for astigmatism contacts are significantly higher than regular contacts. The prices sounded high but having no experience with this type I knew I needed to shop around. I always ask for a written prescription to have the flexibility to order contacts for the best price.
Here is a breakdown of 4 sources:
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The interesting thing is that I use 1800contacts for mine, so I originally assumed they'd have the best price, I was shocked to find Costco beat their price by $200 (after rebate). Always shop around, and every year it can be different. I've had years where Target had the best price, one time Walgreens had the best price. I don't think I've ever checked Costco before, this came up after putting Charlotte's contact brand into google.
I've already bought my contacts for this year, I paid $259.96 for a years supply and got a $40 rebate. I've just compared to Costco and I think I'll be switching my contacts to Costco as well:
1800contacts has great customer service and will replace any torn contact lens without question, but for the price difference, I'd rather go with Costco.
I did have a little trouble getting the Costco website to take Charlotte's doctor prescription, but after a call to their online 1800 number, I was able to get it figured out. I put in her doctor's name, the website couldn't find it, then I had to click on the "unable to find doctor" button, put in the doctor's address and phone and then the system found the doctor. When I called, they also suggested I clear cache so that might have helped.
Happy to have found one more reason to love Costco!
