Have you used Gemini? https://gemini.com/ Don't know how it is for UK users, but for US it's free to deposit into the exchange. Gemini only lets you buy up to $500 USD per day and only supports ETH and BTC...but you avoid the bank fees You only pay a small trading fee when you swap USD/ETH/BTC but no cost to withdraw from the exchange.
Also keep your eyes peeled for the MTL wallet this spring. Not sure if it'll charge fees but it will let you convert fiat into MTL tokens...at least it gets you on the blockchain (with no fees, if I understand correctly) https://www.metalpay.com/
Seems like coinbase persist in this now they are saying banks are going to charge cash advanced fees against card purchases!!! I just got this email from them
For my first choice of wallets now Green address which is segwit compatible.. if more people start adopting it and using the much faster lightning network then this should bring down transaction fees dramatically.
As i mentioned before @vdux I slip through the gaps I have been an expat for the last 16 years and it’s difficult for me to comply with some of the KYC requirements ( i still have the old paper driving license) so cant submit it and they dont accept my ID documents from my country of reaidence. So im stuck in the middle. But for others I am sure for others it would be beneficial what you’re suggesting.
Sorry :-(
Its fine, I can tolerate coinbase for the moment, but fortunately i have been able to develop some mining capacity that funds some of the things I want to do outside of btc so i don't have to deal with it too much.