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Eye tests in UK


tuppence
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Does anyone on here go back to the UK for an eye test, if so do you have to pay. I am over 60 and need to get new glasses, however they are so expensive over here I live in the North of France so it would be more economical to go back to the UK to get them.

tuppence

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Hi - Boots Opticians - you can book on line or call +44 845 125 3752 - currently £10 (normally £20) for an eye test.

For my glasses I order on line via Zennioptical.com in the USA. Really great choice, great price (about a third, or less of the price in France) and my specs arrived in 6 days from China via Fedex. Brilliant!

Chiefluvvie
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[quote user="Chiefluvvie"]Hi - Boots Opticians - you can book on line or call +44 845 125 3752 - currently £10 (normally £20) for an eye test.

For my glasses I order on line via Zennioptical.com in the USA. Really great choice, great price (about a third, or less of the price in France) and my specs arrived in 6 days from China via Fedex. Brilliant!

Chiefluvvie[/quote]

I hope you are UK resident and not cheating the system.

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[quote user="Jimmy"][quote user="Chiefluvvie"]Hi - Boots Opticians - you can book on line or call +44 845 125 3752 - currently £10 (normally £20) for an eye test. For my glasses I order on line via Zennioptical.com in the USA. Really great choice, great price (about a third, or less of the price in France) and my specs arrived in 6 days from China via Fedex. Brilliant! Chiefluvvie[/quote]

I hope you are UK resident and not cheating the system.
[/quote]I think that eye tests are free to residents over 60, or at least OAPs.  Everybody else pays, as Chiefluvvie does.  How in the world is that cheating?  Boots is a commercial outfit discounting its eye test cost to promote its specs. 

My optician (French as it happens) is in the UK and based in Boots.   I go to see her every two years, pay the going rate for the eye test, she prescribes new lenses then  I then buy on the internet using her prescription.  The UK taxpayer is not affected in the least.

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[quote user="Jimmy"][quote user="Chiefluvvie"]Hi - Boots Opticians - you can book on line or call +44 845 125 3752 - currently £10 (normally £20) for an eye test. For my glasses I order on line via Zennioptical.com in the USA. Really great choice, great price (about a third, or less of the price in France) and my specs arrived in 6 days from China via Fedex. Brilliant! Chiefluvvie[/quote]

I hope you are UK resident and not cheating the system.
[/quote]

Jimmy - what on earth are you talking about? Boots is a private company....it's not the NHS!! They are more than happy to take my money and anyone else's!

Chiefluvvie

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I had my eyes tested at Boots last month and paid £20. Then I took the prescription to the opticians here to have some specs made up (very basic ones, for driving.) Hoping some of the cost will be covered by CPAM and my mutuelle.

The optician said he didn't think they would pay as it wasn't a french prescription.  We'll see.

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As it is for residents over 60, I suppose that you will have to pay £10 or £20.

I suppose that glasses are cheaper in the UK and over 60's do get a reduction at some places like Specsavers, I doubt that is related to residency.

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[quote user="idun"]

As it is for residents over 60, I suppose that you will have to pay £10 or £20.

I suppose that glasses are cheaper in the UK and over 60's do get a reduction at some places like Specsavers, I doubt that is related to residency.

[/quote]I think that OAPs get free eye tests, Idun, but don't quote me.  This may be yet one more way in which your unusual situation excludes you.
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I'm not 60 yet, but when I am, maybe they'll count us as resident.

For even though we are, we aren't. I'm sat here smiling, as it is funny too. Still awaiting for an S1 and CEAM's from France, so we are illegals at the moment, not our fault. We only asked for them many many months ago, but what the heck, they don't give a monkeys. Fortuntely we are too broke at the moment to to any travelling, so it's turned out pretty well.

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I had my eyes tested on a visit to Kent. I went to an opticians in Hythe, and because I am over 60 with an EHIC card issued by the UK did not have to pay for the test. I ordered my glasses from there, posted to my address in France, but they would have tested my eyes for free even if I had bought them elsewhere.

Susan

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[quote user="Patf"]I had my eyes tested at Boots last month and paid £20. Then I took the prescription to the opticians here to have some specs made up (very basic ones, for driving.) Hoping some of the cost will be covered by CPAM and my mutuelle.
The optician said he didn't think they would pay as it wasn't a french prescription.  We'll see.
[/quote]

Pat, I had my eyes tested the one and only time I'd been back to the UK and had my glasses made up there.

After asking on the Forum and Coops saying no harm sending a claim in to CPAM.  So, I did but they said they wouldn't pay as I didn't have a French prescription.

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[quote user="smd1"]

I had my eyes tested on a visit to Kent. I went to an opticians in Hythe, and because I am over 60 with an EHIC card issued by the UK did not have to pay for the test. I ordered my glasses from there, posted to my address in France, but they would have tested my eyes for free even if I had bought them elsewhere.

Susan

[/quote]

Thanks for posting this, Susan.

I am planning a trip next year and thought I'd get eyes and teeth checked and passport renewed to justify going! 

 

 

 

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Thanks for all the replies, but as you can see on my original post, I do live in France permanently. I am going to the UK for a day in 2 weeks time and thought I would get an eye test done, then go back the following week to collect them. I'm not trying to cheat any system but if I can get an eye test free I will![:)]

tuppence

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[quote user="JohnFB"]Patf  /Sweet 17

I had a test in the UK but took the prescription to a french optician. CPAM and mutuelle paid their bit for the glasses but of course not the uk prescription. Fair enuf.
JFB

[/quote]

But, JohnFB, French glasses are so expensive!

OH has variable focus lenses and he did take his prescription to a French optician.  If memory serves me right, he paid over 600 euros and, in the end, found the lenses of very poor quality and they got scratched in no time at all.

Anyway, I think that if I do make that trip back to the UK, I'd rather pay and get good quality than faff about buying something that's no good.

Could be where we lived mind, John.  Might try in la belle Dordogne next time....[:D]

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My driving glasses will cost about 150€, which I think is exorbitant. For close work I buy cheap reading glasses at 15€. The person who tested my eyes said I should really have prescription reading glasses as one eye is better than the other, but the cheap ones work fine.

I think specs are a racket.

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Sweet 17

Unfortunately my prescription is quite strong. So to get decent variable focus lenses with a decent field of vision at all levels and reduced thickness i find it better to pay for the higher quality lenses with the protective finishes. Once you take into account the small CPAM reimbursement and the larger mutuelle contribution, France worked out cheaper just.

As for quality, Varilux one of the higher end brands is part of Essilor a French co.n You do have to be careful as the chains like Alain Affelou pushe cheaper brands like Hoya. Nothing wrong with them as long as your prescription is middle to low range. I found the same to be true of the UK chains like Specsavers.

One astuce is the frames. This time when choosing a rimless whose price made me wince, i noticed that the type i wanted had a childrens version at half the price. As I couldn't see any diference and it came in the larger sizes, I took that. The optician took a little persuading is all.

rgds JFB

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[quote user="Patf"]My driving glasses will cost about 150€, which I think is exorbitant. For close work I buy cheap reading glasses at 15€. The person who tested my eyes said I should really have prescription reading glasses as one eye is better than the other, but the cheap ones work fine.
I think specs are a racket.
[/quote]

Pat, I so agree with that!

JohnFB, I, too, have had children's frames as they tend to be much more strongly built.

I don't really mind how they look on me as I only wear them for reading and I am past worrying about how I "look" to others.  I think I look just fine for my advanced age [:D] and I don't tend to linger too long in front of the mirror!

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Over in UK for a couple of weeks so decided to have an eye test today at S********s. We are both OAP's and were charged £22 for the test, not now being in the NHS. OH had to have a new set of quite strong varifocals, so total cost for her was £160 inc. test, frames and lens, for me just the £22 for the test. The specs for OH will take a week to come through. When I enquired if they could send them to France the reply was certainly no problem!

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