Hmm, cheques by post. but no mention of cash.

I'd imagine that you could pay it in at most banks, just like paying a bill.
But I might be wrong.

Abbey are doing a rather attractive current account, as are Halifax (if you can stand the adverts).

So, with that, you don't pay any commission fee for the money exchange, and also, withdrawing cash, doesn't incur a cash machine fee either? if so, that's brill.

Absolutely - I've used it to take money out in several countries, checked the exchange rate when I've got back and whatever Google's told me has been slightly better or slightly worse than what I got from Nationwide - they really do take the exchange rate at the moment, and no added fee. It's a debit card, not sure whether the credit card does the same. The one slight gotcha that might happen is if you pay for a hotel room or something they can flip a switch, as it were, and charge you in pounds - many will do that automatically, and I suppose it would be better for most. But then you get their exchange rate, not Nationwide's. But for things like, e.g. buying tickets in a machine (I bought a carnet in Paris, for instance) and so on, good value is yours.

I'd apply for the credit cards first - there are relatively few 0% ones around, and they'll have tightened their internal credit ratings till the pips squeak, so make sure you've got one before embarking on any action that absolutely requires it.