Hi,
I recently ditched Credit Suisse and joined Postfinance from the Post office. I'm happy with it so far and did some shopping around before to make sure it was suitable.
My requirements were pretty much the same as yours- it's cheaper than the rest, the charges are less, everything is do-able online, cards are taken everywhere (in Swizerland, be careful if you need fuel whilst driving through France!) and there is always a cash machine nearby. They do packages, mine is the "online set" or something and costs 3chf a month I think.
For transferring money I found the best rates are normally one of these guys:
http://www.currenciesdirect.com/uk/
http://www.thomasexchange.co.uk/
You can negotiate a better rate if you send larger amounts and if you are serious you can fix a rate for 12 months by guaranteeing to send a certain amount over that period, the post charges 6 or 8chf to send money to the UK, the rest should all appear in your UK account in a few days.

Hope that helps.

BTW, contractors in Zurich = mere mortals with modest incomes???? Really?