Hayfever season is here! We reveal how to shop around for the best value pollen-fighting drugs
Unbranded tablets have EXACTLY the same ingredients but cost much less than well-known brands
HAYFEVER sufferers often pay through the nose for hayfever tablets - sometimes as much as £7 extra for a pack of £30 tablets.
Around one in five Brits suffer from hayfever, and with rising temperatures and an increase in pollen clouds, now is the time to find out how you can buy cheap tablets before you start stocking up.
Save £7 a box by buying unbranded tablets rather than branded ones
While many people will automatically pick up well-known hayfever tablet brands, such as Piriteze or Clarityn, you can find unbranded equivalents for much less.
Make sure to check that the active ingredient in an unbranded box is still the same as the one in the branded one - if it is, you're essentially buying the same product.
The two main active ingredients in hayfever tablets are Cetirizine Hydrochloride or Loratadine.
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A box of 30 Bendaryl allergy tablets in Sainsbury's currently costs £10, but the supermarket's own-brand box of 30 tablets, with the same active ingredient - Cetirizine Hydrochloride - costs just £3.
That's an immediate saving of £7 a box.
Supermarkets are generally a cheap place to pick up hayfever tablets, but prices vary wildly so it's always best to compare.
You can do this by using the , which scans the cheapest prices offered by the UK's biggest supermarket chains.
Small, independent online pharmacies are often even cheaper than supermarkets.
For example, PharmacyFirst sells . There is a £3.19 delivery charge, but if you bulk-buy there is no delivery charge on orders over £40.
Pharmacy chains including Boots and Lloyds are typically the most expensive stores to pick up tablets, regardless of whether they're unbranded or branded.
The best hayfever tablet deals - tablets for less than 8p a day
Depending on what hayfever tablets you want, you can often find them cheaper online than in the supermarkets.
For example, a pack of 30 Loratadine tablets can be bought from .
Delivery is £1.99, so altogether that works out at around £2.68 - or 8p a tablet.
That makes it slightly cheaper than the price Tesco and Waitrose are charging for their own-brand Loratadine tablets, at £2.75 for 30.
Below, we've compiled two tables showing the prices of unbranded and branded hayfever tablets with different active ingredients across the UK's biggest stores, so you can see where the best deals are.
We've done comparisons of boxes of 30 (you can also get doses for seven and 14 days) as we've assumed these work out cheaper overall.
The Sun Online has heard of cheaper deals currently available in a couple of branches of Boots in London (see tweet below), so it's worth checking your local store to see what's on offer. The deals above are the prices confirmed to us by the retailers.
It also has a buy one get the second half price offer, which will cut down costs on bulk-buying.
Consider getting a prescription - it could be cheaper
If you qualify for free prescriptions, then it will work out cheaper to pay a visit to your doctor.
If you are under 16 or over 60, aged 16-18 and in full-time education, pregnant (if you hold a Maternity Exemption certificate), or on income support you can get free prescriptions.
Otherwise, you can buy a prescription prepayment certificates (PPC) for £29.10 for three months and £104 for 12 months.
If you need to take hayfever tablets on a regular basis, and have other prescriptions to get, it could be worthwhile getting a PPC rather than buying hayfever tablets in store.
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