# Rachel Mensah — Senior Personal Finance Writer | Big Daddy Loans > Rachel Mensah is a Missouri-trained consumer-finance journalist with 12 years covering small-dollar lending, overdraft fees, and hourly-worker budgeting at regional newspapers and digital outlets. Источник: https://bigdaddy-loans.com/authors/rachel-mensah/ --- # Rachel Mensah Senior Personal Finance Writer at Big Daddy Loans. Missouri-trained consumer-finance journalist with 12 years covering small-dollar lending, overdraft economics, and the day-to-day money pressures facing hourly and irregular-income workers. RM **Rachel Mensah** · AFC® in progress · Missouri J-School, 2012 **On this page** Biography Credentials Areas of expertise Articles reviewed Conflicts of interest Contact ## Biography Rachel Mensah is the Senior Personal Finance Writer at Big Daddy Loans, where she authors the explainer guides, product comparisons, and borrower-focused narratives that make up the site's editorial core. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 2012 and is currently completing the AFCPE Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) coursework. Rachel began her career at the Memphis Commercial Appeal as a consumer-beat reporter, spending three years covering overdraft-fee disputes, payday-to-installment loan conversions, and the practical money pressures facing the city's hourly workforce. That daily-newsroom training — deadline pressure, fact-checking, and writing for readers who are in a hurry — shapes her work to this day. From 2016 through 2023 she worked as a freelance contributor and then staff writer at The Penny Hoarder in St. Petersburg, Florida, leading the outlet's debt and credit coverage. There she wrote in-depth guides on prepaid debit cards, bank-fee traps, and the real math behind cash-advance apps — including side-by-side cost comparisons that became templates still used by the editorial team. Rachel joined Big Daddy Loans in 2024 to focus her work squarely on small-dollar lending: the products, the costs, and the alternatives. Her editorial standard is straightforward — if a page can't help a reader decide faster or more safely than they could without it, the page isn't finished yet. ## Credentials **BA Journalism** University of Missouri School of Journalism · 2012 **AFCPE Accreditation (AFC®)** In progress · Expected completion 2026 **Years of experience** 12 years in consumer-finance journalism **Prior outlets** Memphis Commercial Appeal · The Penny Hoarder (St. Petersburg, FL) ## Areas of expertise - **Small-dollar lending** — payday, cash-advance, and short-term installment cost comparisons - **Overdraft economics** — opt-in rules, per-item fee structures, linked-account safeguards - **Irregular-income budgeting** — bi-weekly pay lumpiness, cash-flow gap strategies for hourly workers - **Consumer installment loans** — rate structures, prepayment penalty disclosure, lender licensing - **Plain-language financial journalism** — explainers, comparison tables, borrower-focused narratives ## Articles reviewed by Rachel Rachel authored or contributed to: - [15 Payday Loan Alternatives Ranked by Cost](/payday-loan-alternatives/) - [What is a Payday Loan? Plain-English Explainer](/learn/what-is-a-payday-loan/) - [Payday Loans Online — Compare 23+ State-Licensed Lenders (2026)](/payday-loans/) - [50-State Payday Loan Cost Index 2026](/research/cost-index-2026/) - [Payday Loans in Texas: Laws, Rates, Limits & Alternatives](/state/texas/) ## Conflict of interest disclosure **Disclosure.** Rachel holds no ownership interest in any lender, fintech platform, or lead-generation network reviewed on Big Daddy Loans. Her compensation is a fixed editorial salary with no referral or per-application component. She has no current freelance agreements with lenders, debt-settlement providers, or financial-services companies. All prior outlet affiliations are on file with the Big Daddy Loans editorial board. ## Contact For story pitches, source introductions, or interview requests, contact editor@bigdaddy-loans.com. #### About our authors Each article on Big Daddy Loans is written by a qualified author and subsequently verified by an independent reviewer. [View our 6 authors](/authors/) --- #### Editorial standards [Read our editorial policy →](/editorial-policy/) [Fact-checking process →](/fact-checking-policy/) [Corrections log →](/corrections/)