Seeing A Good Deal, Eye Exams for Philippine Expats

By Al Ambrose

Before I came to the Philippines to live as an expat, I had researched the Philippines extensively. I focused on a couple of main areas of concern for me because I wanted to make sure that my lifestyle was the same or better, and it got much better. One of the main areas of concern for me was making sure that I got quality health care because as you get older, things start falling apart. I have long had vision problems since I was a child. I don't want to blame my parents or heredity, but I was raised partially by television as a kid and it ruined my vision. Every babysitter will eventually require payment, and television required the payment of my eyesight. I got my yearly eye exams in the United States as normal, but now that I live in the Philippines permanently, I wondered whether I'd be able to get the same quality of care.

As most expats in the Philippines know, the Philippines health care system is divided into two sectors, public care, and private care. If you are thinking about becoming an expat in the Philippines, believe me when I tell you that you really want private care. So, as usual, I did a Google search to find an optometrist. I found several in the area and as usual, I started comparing prices and services. To my shock and joy, I found that there are several great optometrists located where I live. Their facilities were clean and rivaled those found in the United States. When I walked in and inquired about the prices of the service, I was delighted to find out that the eye exam would only cost me 500 pesos. That is about 10 bucks US. For expats who live in the Philippines and have done so for a long time that is no surprise, you can get some of the top-level medical care for a fraction of what you would pay in the United States,  and get several great optometrists services.

I had my eye exam with a wonderful doctor that was very thorough, even more so than my doctor back in the States, she was absolutely amazing, and I told her so. As I left I thanked her so much for all her care and she provided me a copy of my prescription for my glasses. Of course, the salesperson who worked in her office wanted to interest me in some frames and I did check out the prices for glasses, but with all things that I do I research them before I make purchases. I have a history of finding great deals in eyewear by using a secret strategy that not a lot of people think to do, I'm going to share this with you guys and this posting. Of course, I went around to several other optometrist locations to check on the prices of what it would cost to fill my prescription.

Sadly, I found out that it was only slightly 50% lower than what I would pay in the United States. You see, I have gotten used to using an online service called Zeelool.com, and it absolutely blows all optometrists and I wear shops out of the water when it comes to price and fast service. The only thing that they don't do is an eye exam now you understand why I had to see the good doctor. I went on to the site while at home and I searched through several of their glasses online, I favorited several of them that I liked and made my final decision after extensive searching of their frames. They were offering a buy one, get one 50% off sale site-wide. I was happy but actually, this is a common occurrence on this site they tend to discount things and offer special promos all the time.

I was able to order my two pairs of glasses and have them shipped by just entering my prescription information and payment and shipping information. It should be noted that if you feel uncomfortable putting in the information yourself, you can simply upload a digital copy of your subscription and have one of the professionals at Zeelool.com prepare your glasses. You may be wondering if I got all the same things that I would get at an optometrist shop such as scratch guard, transitioning lenses, or any other amazing feature. All I can say is that they have everything that you're used to, you just click and add it on to your order.

I always order glasses that transition when the sunlight hits them because I have always been a fan of sunglasses, but this way I can have sunglasses that have my prescription. Anyway, the most important thing to many of my readers is what was the price and is the quality the same and the answer to that is the price was 40% lower than the Filipino optometrist prescription prices which were already lower than the US prices. You also have to remember that I got two pairs, so if you factor that, it was about 70% savings.

The shipping was included and to give you some raw numbers I got both sets of glasses and shipping included for $149. Plus because of their anniversary sale they threw in a free gift. There are some important things to note here, though. I get my mail forwarded to me from a service called Traveling Mailbox. However, I could have gotten the item shipped directly to me but since I'm in the process of moving, and it takes about 14 to 21 days to get my order it made sense for me to have it just go to my Traveling Mailbox address and then have it shipped to my new address later which only would take 3 days.

In conclusion, I highly recommend My Optometrist what which was in Nuvali at Ayala Mall and the Zeelool.com service for purchasing your glasses and having them ship directly to you at amazingly low prices. Maybe your prescription will not be as costly as mine because maybe your eyes are better, but my eyes are good enough to see a good deal and that's what we have with Zeelool.


Please Note: All the links in this post are clickable and provide great resources, and we may get some benefit from them monetarily.  We are affiliate/partners with a few of the service providers.