Packaged accounts: Don’t buy this latest bank fraud

One in five Britons now has a 'packaged' bank account. These are where you pay a fee every month and get extra benefits in return. But they're not worth having, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

Does the financial industry have your interests at heart? If you work at the top of the industry you will agree that it does. Fund manager pay across Europe has risen by 18% in the last 12 months, despite an outbreak of even more dismal performance than usual. However, for those outside the industry, I can honestly say that I have never come across a circumstance under which the answer is yes'.

Nowhere is that more clear than in the rip off that is retail banking. It seems only a matter of weeks ago that the big banks were caught scamming customers into buying payment protection insurance (PPI) that they didn't need and the papers were full of the horror of high overdraft charges. But already the banks have a new scandal on the go: the packaged account.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.