KUMALA

Some misapprehensions here about Barclays, just go and open the Barclays Bank A/C (NOT the Student Bank A/C), you will be charged NOTHING for your a/c maintenances from the bank, there's no surcharge for your account balance belows £2K. Besides I personally don't believe Barclays provides the most terrible services among those banking companies in UK market, according to my own experiences, HSBC is actually becoming the worst British Bank for its bloody offensive customer services. (NatWest and its parent company - RBS are actually making improvements...although they are still ways behind the Llyods-TSB, the one owns brilliant reputations among the international students.)

However the standard of providing services in your local bank, including opening a bank a/c, is greatly depends on the city or town which you currently living. If any difficulities occur for dealing with your bank a/c in your local bank, just change to another place, try to avoid wastering your time on totally useless communications. -_-

P.S:  All personal ideas, no offence at all, your understandings are greatly appreciated! ^_^