I see some online savings accounts up to 1.10%.

Is there any downside to chasing performance using these accounts? Obviously opening several credit cards dings your credit. But if I open up a 1.10% account and a few months later they decrease it to .8% or something, is there anything I should think about before moving it to another higher-paying savings account, or just move it?

This is for my more "liquid," non-investment cash for emergency fund, etc.

I don't see any big issues.  Just don't lock all your emergency money up in an account and forget a password.  Might take a few days to get it straightened out.

Good point, I have good password management strategy in place (it's specifically what I do for a living as a software dev). So no worries there.

I don't need "liquid" as in "I gotta have $10k tomorrow". I have a credit union that is my main account that takes all my direct deposits, etc and I'll always keep at least 2 months of expected expenses in there so I can leisurely move money in or out as needed.

I am mostly concerned about unneeded credit dings, or even unnecessary red flags to the IRS. Apparently some applications for overdraft protection (which I wouldn't need for a strictly money market account) can decrease your credit score...

Problem is that many accounts charge monthly fees if you don't have a minimum balance or have your direct deposits done there. Nothing wrong with having multiple accounts open, and the average age of accounts will boost your credit over time. However, suddenly moving funds to chase a better interest rate and incurring monthly fees at the other accounts would defeat the purpose, and closing them removes the benefit of increasing the average age of your accounts.

You need to look in to Kasasa checking in your area.

My interest is 3.5% for a free checking account, as long as I swipe my debit card 10 times a month and have one direct deposit.

I can accrue 3.5% on up to $10k in my checking and another 1.5% in up to $10k in my affiliated savings account.

I have bounced around several different banks offering Kasasa, chasing the interest as you described.  I've never seen it come through my credit, not sure why it would.

I don't think it would hurt your credit at all... chasing deals can be pretty lucrative if you're willing to put the time in.

IE, me, my wife, my daughter, and my dog all signed up for Discover accounts last year when they were offering a $100 bonus if you put $5k in and held it in there for at least 30 days... ok, ok, you got me, I didn't sign my dog up, he doesn't have a social security number...

If I had more time I would be doing that every chance I could...

Current savings account interest rates are a guaranteed way to lose money. The interest rates they are paying are less than the inflation rate. Keep you emergency fund wherever safe it doesn't matter much. Even if you had a 50k emergency fund it would earn $500 a year at those rates. Why bother. Anything beyond an emergency fund invest in something that has a much better rate of return. I like the vanguard total stock market fund and real estate. I even have some invested with lending club. My 10k at lending club is on pace to outearn 50k in a 1% savings account.

Cash isn't really supposed to be an investment.  It's a safety net.  Earning anything on it right now is better than nothing.

If you're supposed to have 12 months of expenses in a savings account, it sure is nice to get the most out of it.

I know that and that is what I said in my post. My point is what is 12 months of expenses maybe 20 to 50k depending on the person?  If 50k and you shop around and jump through hoops to get a better percentage and get an extra 1/2% you earn $250 a year. Is the hassle worth it? By all means shop around and find the best rate you can but jumping around isn't likely to add much percentage wise and will likely take more time and effort than it is worth. My time is very valuable and I ain't going to spend hours filling out crap and searching for things and moving money around for a couple hundred bucks a year. I guess it depends on the person.

It seems sometime people get caught up in looking at things through the glasses of their own situation when, in fact, their situation isn't the same as other people's situations.

We're all different, at different points in our life, have different goals, have different financial situations... one-size does not fit all.

It seems to many people there are only 2 places you should keep your money: #1 cash emergency fund, and #2 long-term growth/gains investments. But that strategy completely neglects and entire sector of the market... "short term, holding pattern". Sure, you're not "Making" anything with cash investments but that's no reason to throw what little gains you can get out the window.

Take, for example, a person that has significant savings but is searching for a house. They intended to put 20% down on the house. Would you recommend they keep that 20% in the stock market where there is more risk? Or keep it in a lower-risk, low reward account, like say a high-yield savings account?

Keep in mind, the asset needs to be liquid, it doesn't do you any good if it's locked away and cannot be accessed for a period of months... that's no good for a down payment. What happens if it's in stocks and the market has a 20% dip? 20% just turned into 16% down... that's not good either, now you're talking about paying PMI of 1%+ on an amount of money MUCH larger than the 20% that you had socked away for a down payment.

Of course, with many things, diversification can help you... I just went through all this.... I had a good mix of stocks, mutual funds, and high-yield cash reserves... It worked out well for me but if the markets had been in a dip it wouldn't have worked out so well.

That's what I'm doing. I'm closing down a business and after I get some money back from selling my liquor license (a month or so) I want to use that to pay off my house.

That will take care of about half of it... I have the other half in cash.

I ended up going with Dime online bank.