Ways to Save on Contact Lenses

Last Updated: November 25, 2025

Introduction

If you are like me, then you have been paying $10/month for vision insurance and you just realized that your vision insurance benefits resets at the end of the calendar year. If you don’t use it, then you just wasted $120 this year for nothing.

For those who have contacts, a year’s supply of contact lenses can easily cost hundreds of dollars and if you have special lenses or require dailies, this can cost easily cost more than double that. Yes, there’s vision insurance, but they only cover around $120-$130 for contact lenses ($130 in my case w/ 15% discount for any amount above $130).

Baseline Cost

As an example, I’ll use a popular monthly contact lense product, Biofinity CooperVision, for pricing comparison. At Lenscrafters, a years worth of these contacts are normally $62.99 a box of 6 lenses ($251.96 for a year), but thanks to a Black Friday sale, it’s $55.59 a box ($221.96 a year). Just to make sure the base pricing is correct, MyEyeDr is selling it for $68.00 a box, so $55.99 sounds like a good base price to compare against.

Also, just to make sure our price comparison is apples-to-apples, Rakuten has a 4% cashback on Lenscrafters. So our baseline cost for a year’s worth of Biofinity CooperVision is $208.64

Level One - FSA

Level Stats
Savings:                0-50% Discount
Usage Type:             Online or In-Store

If your employer offers you an FSA option, consider putting money aside for vision purchases. Even if you have an HSA, you should be eligible to put money into a Limited Purpose FSA (LPFSA) using pre-tax dollars. It’s also very convenient to use because most FSA plans provide a debit card.

Downsides

FSA is a use-it-or-lose-it benefit, similar to vision insurance. Remember to use up all the funds (or enough to reach the maximum rollover amount, if it has this feature) before the end of the year (or end of grace period).

Savings Calculation

Depending on your overall effective marginal tax rate (local + state + federal income tax rate), you could save between 0-50% or even more if your local and state have high income tax rates.

For example, if you are in the 22% federal tax bracket, you live in a locality/state that taxes you 4% overall, and the FICA tax rate is 7.65%, then you would be saving 33.65%.

Note, this is combinable with most of the options below.

Level Two - The “Costco” Discount

Level Stats
Savings:                ~35.4% Discount (Lower if no club membership)
Usage Type:             Online or In-Store

Many non-big-box optometrists will price match Costco or Sam’s Club prices, even if they don’t advertise it. They most likely won’t even ask you for proof that you have a membership. Although they might not have the exact rebates that Costco advertises, they might offer comparable rebates of their own. This is a quick and easy way to reduce the bill, so make sure you check the pricing from your nearest wholesale club, so you can compare their price match.

Downsides

It is possible they don’t price match, then my recommended approach would be to make sure they print out your prescription so that you can directly buy from your wholesale club. If you don’t have a membership, it’ll cost you around $50-65 for a membership, so you might still save a little, but it might not be worth the inconvenience.

Savings Calculation

Costco is currently selling this product for $38.87 a box with a $20 mail-in rebate if you buy 4 boxes ($155.48 - $20 = $135.48 for a year). Given you already have a membership, that’s a $73.16 savings or 35.4% discount. Nearly free with vision insurance.

Level Three - Out-Of-Network and Online

Level Stats
Savings:                ~33.2% Discount
Usage Type:             Online

If you look at your vision insurance, you’ll notice that you have an in-network and an out-of-network benefit for contact lenses. The out-of-benefit is usually a reimbursement but for a lower amount ($105 in my case). But the thing is, you can usually find an online retailer that has better pricing than even Costco.

For instance, this is from ContactsDirect.com and after all the discounts, it ends up being ~$29.79 per box ($119.17). That’s $102.79 cheaper than LensCrafters and $16.31 cheaper than Costco. In this case though, Costco is cheaper since most vision insurance plans consider Costco an in-network provider, but if you don’t already have a Costco membership, then this option would be cheaper.

This also changes if your contacts are more expensive. For instance, the toric version of these lenses have a price difference of $49.59, in which case, this option is cheaper than Costco.

OptiContacts is an even cheaper option, but you do have to make sure you aren’t being bait and switched as you can see in this quote (see screenshot below). A lot of online stores have these extremely high processing fees.

Pro-Tip: - Check Rakuten for any cashback for the online site you are using. For instance, currently, Rakuten has 4% cashback on ContactsDirect.com.

Downsides

One, it does require some research to find the best online pricing, especially with the bait-and-switch tactic mentioned above. Some sites offer different pricing through different links or offer hidden promo codes, so this research could be daunting. To get you started, here are a few online sites to compare against:

Pro-Tip: 1-800-Contacts price matches their competitors, including rebates, which is great because they do have a torn lense guarantee. It’s also possible they might have a better Rakuten cashback than other online competitors.

Two, it does require some time to ship the contacts to you. This only affects you if you have contact lenses that are in-stock most of the time. If you have toric lenses like me, some optimetrists have to special order them anyways.

Lastly, you do have to fill out a reimbursement form from your vision insurance. So similar risks to rebates, where reimbursements can be rejected. I’ve never had an issue with reimbursements, but there is a chance you’ll have to go through some hoops. This also means you will have to pay the full cost upfront while you wait for your reimbursement, which could take a couple of weeks. This could be an advantage because you gain credit card points, but if you are strapped for cash, this could be a significant downside.

Savings Calculation

Total cost = $119.17 (ContactsDirect) * (0.96 for Rakuten cashback) + ~$25 (difference between in-network and out-of-network discount)= $139.40

Savings = $208.64 - $139.4 = $69.24 or 33.2% discount