LensPriceCompare Blog

This month we would like to provide you with consumer tips to help the informed consumer.

Provide your users with these easy steps to ensure eye health when wearing contact lenses:

• Wash your hands thoroughly before handling your contact lenses.
• Perform all contact lens care steps (clean, rinse, disinfect!) every time you remove your lenses from your eyes, on a schedule recommended by your eye care professional.
• Use only fresh contact lens care solutions that are recommended by your eye care professional — and never tap water!
• Replace your lenses with a fresh new pair on a schedule recommended by your eye care professional.

Lens.com: Get FREE Standard Shipping + $5.00 off first time orders of $149 or more with code FIRST-08OU. Offer expires 4/30/08.

Today we had a call from one of our visitors who said we don’t list Biofinity Contact Lenses. On checking through the menus it turned out he was right! It turned out the caller previously needed Frequency 55, which resulted in too much dryness, so the eye doctor recommended Biofinity instead.

The caller had done his research though, and was able to find Biofinity lenses at 1800Contacts.com. Of course, being a savvy shopper, and recognizing Lenspricecompare.com as a value-add site, he went the extra step to call in, just to make sure we did not have it listed.

Biofinity is a new contact lens and it’s possible that other retailers are waiting for demand to build until listing it.

Update:  Click here for Biofinity contact lens prices.

CoastalContacts.com just issued our site with some great exclusive coupons, which will result in very significant savings for contact lens price comparison shoppers. These coupons are for use only at Lenspricecompare.com.

So, now we have four Coastal Contacts coupons to offer you, which cover every price point above $10. The coupons are available for a limited time, and we are not committing to a date right now because CoastalContacts.com may extend it. Suffice to say the offers will be good for at least until the end of April 08. So please take advantage while the offers are available! By the way this coincides with the expiry date of the Acuvue rebates, and so don’t miss out on those either.

Three coupons consist of:
$5.00 off over $49.00
$10.00 off over $99.00
$25.00 off over $199.00

…and the grand finale…

10% off any contact lens purchase over $10. For example, save $35 plus Free Shipping, plus a $100 rebate on a $359 purchase. Time to buy your Focus Dailies 90 packs perhaps!

As you will see on the contact lens pages, each of the $10 and $25 dollar coupons automatically add free shipping (for purchases over $89), which translates into savings of $16.96 and $31.95. You get free shipping on any contact lens purchase over $99 using the 10% off coupon, but because this is a new configuration, we haven’t created the capability for the free shipping to be calculated automatically.

It is also important to note that CoastalContacts.com has four exclusive rebates for Focus-Freshlook-Ciba, all part of Ciba-Vision. Here’s a recap on the rebate values, just in case you didn’t know:

Night & Day – Buy 6 Packs — $100 Rebate
Freshlook Colorblends – Buy 6 Packs – Rebate $60
O2 Optix – Buy 8 Packs — $60 Rebate
Focus Dailies – Buy 10 Packs — $100 Rebate

Folks these rebate expire on May 31st 2008, and rebate submission to be postmarked by June 10th 2008. You will need to first get a fitting and eye exam!! Get your coupons here (on the lens price comparison page), and see their website for the rebate details. If you haven’t already, now is the time to take action.

The eye exam is very important for the health of your eyes. Please don’t take short cuts and put your eyes at risk. It’s just not worth the money.

March 19th 2008, the front page of the UK Telegraph Online, under Arts and Features, and 50 Ways to Save Money, lists saving on contact lenses as one of the top ways to save money under house and home section. They recommend buying online where contacts cost a fraction of the high street prices. They also recommend buying from big retail stores to save money. No doubt, this tip will also apply to USA buyers.

Buying online is very convenient and all the information is there in front of you. You don’t need to phone around to different stores, waiting for someone to pick up. There’s no need to get in your car and make that special trip, and wasting gasoline. With a couple of clicks of the mouse, you’re there, you make an online purchase, you save money. It’s so convenient these days with the Web.

The other saving money tips include cycling around, which is fine in England but a little more difficult in the USA where distances to work and stores are usually much greater. They also recommended saving on heating bills by making your home more efficient by using energy efficient light bulbs and adding insulation.

One other way to really save money is to buy contact lenses in bulk. Some retailers have excellent incentives around the eight-box quantity. This varies, usually by the cost of the lenses, from four to 12 boxes. The best volume discounts, rebates, and coupons tend to occur where the manufacturer is also offering rebates.

So if the credit crunch is affecting you, be sure to consider buying contacts online, and save some money!

Volume Discounts

Did you really know how to get the most for your money when buying contact lenses online? It’s not for every body, but if you spend over $100 on contacts, you need to read this. Retailers structure their prices and offers around quantity and price breaks. If you hit the magic number of boxes, you can save with a rebate, a coupon, and on top of all that, a volume discount for buying more contacts. That’s three simultaneous but different ways to save right there.

Finding Coupons

Coupons save people who buy large quantities of lenses lots of money. A good rule of thumb is coupons save 10% off the price. So for every $150 spent on contact lenses, the shopper saves $15. Combine this with free shipping and over $20 savings before ever comparing prices.

Finding Rebates

Acuvue and Ciba Vision or Focus are known to use coupons for online marketing. Rebate practices are a little different in the online contact lens world. Standard rebates are available from Acuvue, but Ciba, Freshlook and Focus provide unique rebates to online retailers.

Finding Value

The best value contact lenses are found by calculating total cost, including shipping, handling, and discounts and dividing it by the number of boxes. This gives you the price per box and naturally the lowest price per box will equate to the best value. Typically, you need to buy more boxes to get the best value, but that’s not always the case. It really depends on current coupons, retailer discounts, and rebates combined, and the number of boxes you buy.

Check The Better Business Bureau

When unsure, and it’s the first time buying lenses on line, or anything for that matter, take a look at the Better Business Bureau online. Check the store you are buying from to make sure there were not excessive complaints, and that you are satisfied with the record. Stores with the BBB logo are likely to be more trustworthy than those without.

Finding Free Shipping

First of all, don’t procrastinate with ordering. If you leave it too late, you’ll end up expediting and they’ll charge you even more. On the other hand, there’s often a coupon or free shipping price break. So check shipping breaks first, and try to buy over the price break threshold.

Purchase Lenses On The Internet!

It is usually a great idea to shop around for the best deals.