Let me say we used to be quite satisfied with most aspects of UBS, like the online banking and online access to credit card statements and that most things are available in English. However, their recent financial behaviour has been abhorrent in my opinion, and we have decided to take our money elsewhere for that reason. Also, you are right, their currency transactions are expensive, and I now use
www.wechselstube.ch for that. Easy and much cheaper.
Second, UBS recently changed their fee structure, and if you dip below 10k a month even for a day, you need to pay fees, including paying for every internet transaction you did that month. (Before, you needed to reach 10k in a month).
I like Postfinance too, especially because you can get a free Euro account and free Postcard in Euro (UBS charges 1% for Euro withdrawals), but on their own PF are not enough for me. A transfer in Euros to the EU cost 30 Euros because they had no links with the (major) receiving bank. Second, they do not offer the Maestro card, and the Plus card alone, hmm, do all Europeans bankomats offer the Plus logo these days?
I went to Raiffeisen today, and got some more info. If you pay 200 CHF, you can get the membership only accounts which are free to maintain, your withdrawals at their and other banks' ATMs are free, and the interest is higher. You also get a Maestro card and Credit card and Museum pass free the first year, which seems a good deal to me, even though they charge 1.5% credit card fees on foreign payments whereas most UBS cards charge 0.9%. You get the 200 CHF back when you leave plus interest on it.
So in theory, I would prefer the bigger banks as, like Richard says, they should be more experienced in doing uncommon things, but since the advent of internet banking has made life more flexible, I think I will take a chance with Raiffeisen for now and Postfinance as backup, also for easy foreign currency accounts.
What I do not yet know is if you can transfer those locked rental accounts to another bank. I do know transferring simple pillar 3a accounts should be straightforward (the interest rate is also higher than at UBS, 2.5% for Fisca 3a and 2.25 for vested benefits, at UBS Fisca 3a yields 2% and vested benefits 1.75%; a difference of 1% if you have both accounts see http://www.ubs.com/1/e/ubs_ch/private/interests.html ).
The only other thing is Raiffeisen seem to be organized regionally, so if you work and live in another region (say French-speaking CH), you can not organize your affairs at both branches, but you can withdraw and deposit money in the 'foreign' branch.