I did not know about the basic bank account in the UK. What do you need to apply for a bank account? Do you need to provide some form of govt. ID to get it or can you get it any piece of item in a retail store?

In the US a good portion of the unbanked also happens to be undocumented immigrants. There is also the problem of AML/KYC process in the US which has been stricter in the US than in the UK (as you could tell from the UK headquartered banks getting fined by US Regulators -- not saying it is better though) and as a consequence the cost of compliance goes up for the bank. They pass on these costs to the consumer but with an upsell mentality that you had mentioned (increased min balance requirement removes fees, for e.g.) -- this leads to the upper middle class paying nothing and the poor and middle class paying bulk of the fees.

The economist had a very nice article about the cost of being poor: http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21663262-why-low.... This is a very difficult problem and will be hard to address properly without adequate support from the govt. For example, the govt. could provide easier access to banking license for those who want to serve low-income customers and allow for innovative solutions in this space.