A flex account you are charged, a Flex Plus you are not. We changed to the flex plus last year. It costs £10 per month but all of the additional benefits are worth it, such as free withdrawals, free holiday insurance, 4% interest on the account, additional warranty cover on electrical goods for free etc etc.
We live in Turkey permanently and use this account to withdraw our money here, which is paid into our UK account. We have not been charged a penny for withdrawing Lira. When we check our account we often find the exchange rate is the same as here in Turkey and sometimes better.