If you choose to go to 1and1, do not register a domain you care about with them. (Last year I "lost" one domain for eleven days as I transferred it from 1and1 to bytemark).
Mick
The one thing I do pay over the odds for is DNS management. I don't mind skimping on the site hosting, at the cost of some downtime if something goes wrong but as I'd really not want to risk losing my small number of names, I use a large well-established US company which also provides a fantastic web interface that allows customisation of names down to SRV records etc.
I'd rather do that than go with one of the smaller UK companies advertising domains for much cheaper but who can cause real problems if they go under or even just stop responding to support requests. Getting them back through Nominet or whoever would take time to go through the process, and I'd shudder to think what you could do if it wasn't your name in the WHOIS record, which I've heard has been an issue with some companies in the past - registering the names in their own name, rather than yours.
Anyway, I hope you get your situation sorted out eventually, Mick.
Peter.