Biography

David Chen is a Senior Personal Finance Writer at Quick Cash, where he authors voice-of-customer narratives, comparison content, and explainer pieces. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Columbia University in 2015 and is currently completing the AFCPE Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) coursework.

David spent the first five years of his career as a staff writer at Bankrate, covering credit cards, personal loans, and the early growth of online installment lenders. He produced multi-part reporting series on rent-a-bank arrangements and the rise of fintech lenders targeting subprime borrowers — work that drew citations from CFPB staff and consumer-advocacy researchers.

In 2020 he moved to NerdWallet as a senior writer on the loans team, where he led coverage of bad-credit lending, earned wage access apps (EarnIn, DailyPay, Dave, Brigit), and the financial squeeze on rideshare and delivery workers during and after the pandemic. He interviewed more than 300 borrowers across four years and built a regular column on gig-economy household budgeting.

David joined Quick Cash in 2025 to put the same reader-first, comparison-driven approach to work on a site dedicated specifically to small-dollar lending. His editorial focus: making sure pages serve real readers in real situations — without jargon, without the false comfort that fuels bad decisions, and with the cheaper alternative always one click away.

Credentials

BA Journalism
Columbia University · 2015
AFCPE Accreditation
In progress · Expected completion 2026
Years of experience
10 years in personal-finance journalism (Bankrate, NerdWallet)
Interviews on file
300+ borrowers and consumer-finance staff

Areas of expertise

  • Bad-credit lending — subprime installment, secured loans, credit-builder products
  • Subprime credit — second-chance cards, refundable security deposits, fee structures
  • Earned wage access (EWA) — employer-integrated vs. consumer-direct, tip mechanics, true cost
  • Gig-economy finance — irregular-income budgeting, 1099 tax holdback, EWA dependency
  • Voice-of-customer reporting — borrower-narrative reporting and ethnographic interviews

Articles reviewed by David

David authored or contributed to:

Conflict of interest disclosure

Disclosure. Author owns no securities in companies covered. Compensated by Quick Cash salary; no per-loan referral incentives. No active freelance contracts with lenders, lead generators, or debt-relief firms. Past employer relationships (Bankrate, NerdWallet) disclosed to the editorial board; recused from any review that touches a former direct client.

Contact

For story pitches, source introductions, or interview requests, contact [email protected] or reach David via LinkedIn.