Is it wise to have savings accounts of various types scattered over a number of different banks?

I have multiple money market accounts, primarily because of the $250k FDIC insurance limit. Some say that if your account is larger than $250k, the government will make you whole. But why tempt fate? Secondarily, I don't like the idea of only having one account. Sometimes, online servers go down. Or the web site shuts down for a day or for the weekend and access is delayed.

I keep almost everything (uninvested cash) in these accounts or in laddered CDs and treasuries (1-6 months). Currently, they pay in the vicinity of 4.25%. Once or twice a month I transfer cash to my local bank for paying bills. It's quick and easy. I could avoid that by opening a checking account at Fidelity and having it come out of my account but I like the bank relationship.

Reasons to have fewer accounts: Easier to manage. Avoid duplicate fees.

Reasons to have many accounts: You have more than the FDIC insurance limit for one account. You are afraid the bank will go broke. You are afraid the bank's web site will go down when you need access. You find it helpful to keep money for different purposes in different accounts.

When I lived in the US, I had three "asset" accounts: A checking account where I kept my day-to-day money. A 401k with my current employer. An IRA where I accumulated the money from previous employers.

When I retired I moved to the Philippines, and now moving my money from the US to the Philippines as I need it is a bigger issue. I don't want just one way to get to my money, in case there's a problem. When I lived in the US, if, say, my ATM card expired, I could just drive to the bank and get a new card. Now I have to get them to send me a card through an international shipping company (usually FedEx), which takes days or weeks. So I now have multiple accounts as back ups. But I think it's getting hard to manage to I may narrow it down to just 2 or 3.

Unless you are not only expecting banks to fail, but expecting your country's system of protecting bank customers (in the us, FDIC insurance) to fail, I wouldn't worry too much about scattering your money around.

If you have more in bank accounts then would be protected -- in the US, I think that is more than $250,000 per account? -- that might be a justification for dividing things up. Though in the past, the US government has in fact made whole customers whose accounts were larger than that. So the biggest advantage of spreading the money around might be simply better odds of some of it continuing to be available while you wait for the rest to be reconciled.

Personally, if you have that much, I would advise you not to keep it in a simple bank account. Bank account interest historically does not keep pace with inflation. Investments can do significantly better with very little effort and (usually) fairly low risk. The only time I have ever had anything close to that in a single account was in preparation for writing checks for my 50% down payment on the house.