Dave helps you avoid overdraft fees by offering interest-free cash advances that are automatically repaid on your next payday. But you can only get up to $100, so it won’t be much help if you need to cover a larger expense.
$100
Max. Amount
Same business day to 3 business days
Turnaround time
Dave allows you to get up to $100 as an advance when you’re at risk of overdrawing your bank account. It’s a free service — there’s no interest — but you will be on the hook for a $1 monthly membership fee. You can request an advance with Dave as often as you’d like — provided your last payment has cleared and your bank account isn’t overdrawn by more than $100.
To get started, you need to download the app to your phone. Dave only allows you to have one device per account, and your Dave account can only be connected to one bank account at a time.
With Dave, you have two delivery options — standard or express. The standard option takes up to three business days to deliver your advance to your checking account, but is free to use as a member. The express option can be delivered to your debit card within eight hours, but will cost a small fee of $4.99.
No. Unlike pay advance apps that use your hourly work history to determine the amount, Dave works a little differently. If your account balance is short to cover an expense, you can get an advance of up to $100 on the Dave app. The $1 membership fee makes this a more affordable option than the typical $35 overdraft fee charged by traditional banks.
While Dave doesn’t check your credit score, it does ask you to meet some income requirements:
You’ll pay Dave back the day you get paid, although smaller advances may be due on the Friday after you receive the money. To make things easier, Dave automatically deducts your payment from your bank account. But if you have the money sooner, you can always make a manual payment.
The only time you’ll pay back more than you were advanced is if you select the express delivery option or choose to tip. As long as you keep up with your membership fee, you won’t have to worry about paying any interest or late fees like with payday loans.
Dave is more than an overdraft app. When you link your bank account, Dave can monitor your transaction history and predict when a bill could leave you in the negative. This helps protect you from overdraft fees before they occur.
And if you need a little extra to get by, Dave is there with a small, fee-free advance to help you until your next paycheck.
An advance through Dave may be free, but there is charge for the app. There’s a $1 membership fee — taken from your first paycheck of each month — that you need to pay in order to keep using Dave.
You can view when your account will be charged in the Dave Membership section of your profile on the app. If you don’t have enough, Dave will continue to try and collect the membership fee each Friday until you’re able to pay.
And since you won’t be charged any fees or interest on the advance, Dave relies on a tipping system to sustain itself. You’re able to select a percentage that will be added to the cost of your advance, with a portion going toward Trees for the Future.
Dave doesn’t charge a late fee. However, if you don’t have enough to repay your advance, you may be banned from using the app. There are no extensions, and you won’t be able to change your payback date after you accept the advance.
In general, yes — but no app can guarantee your information stays 100% secure. Dave does its part by using a 2048-bit encryption system to keep any personal details you enter in the app safe from hackers.
Your banking information is always stored offline, and a security team monitors Dave’s data center 24/7. All of this is in addition to the firewalls and other security precautions it has in place.
In July 2020, Dave had data on 7.5 million users stolen — including full names, birth dates, phone numbers, emails and home addresses. Encrypted passwords and Social Security numbers were also taken, but Dave has not reported any instances of hackers accessing user accounts.
While this does mean current users should change their passwords for Dave and ensure their accounts are safe, it doesn’t indicate a lack of security on Dave’s part. In fact, Dave quickly notified news outlets and is working to inform its users. And because of its multipart encryption system, both passwords and Social Security numbers are safe.
| BBB accredited | Yes |
|---|---|
| BBB rating | B+ |
| BBB customer reviews | 1.57 out of 5 stars, based on 95 customer reviews |
| BBB customer complaints | 441 |
| AppStore score | 4.8 out of 5 stars, based on 4,385,014 customer reviews |
| Google Play score | 4.6 out of 5 stars, based on 310,660 customer reviews |
| Customer reviews verified as of | 16 October 2020 |
But others complain about the the extra fee you had to pay for the express delivery option. Overall, users seem to appreciate this service as a cheap alternative to payday loans.
Unlike a payday loan, Dave is only available in small amounts — less than $100 — and costs almost nothing to get an advance. Here’s how the two options compare:
| Dave | Payday loans | |
|---|---|---|
| Amount | Up to $100 | Typically up to $1,000, and most states allow only one at a time |
| Turnaround time | Less than 8 hours with express delivery, up to 3 days with standard delivery | Typically next business day |
| Application process | Simple mobile app, requires Social Security number and connection to your bank account and debit card | Simple online application, typically requires Social Security number and bank account numbers |
| Costs | No interest or fees, no obligation to tip, $1 monthly membership fee | High interest rates that can equal fees of $15 to $25 per $100 borrowed |
| Availability | Anywhere in the US | Prohibited in some states |
Follow these steps to sign up with Dave:
Once your account is created and your identity has been confirmed, Dave will start tracking your transactions. It will send text alerts if your bank account is at risk of being overdrawn, and you’ll have the opportunity to get an advance of up to $100 when you need it.
Dave was started in 2016 to act as a shield between users and hefty overdraft fees that banks charge. Although it’s only been around for a few years, it’s quickly made a name for itself, been backed by Mark Cuban and even has a social mission behind it.
A percentage of every tip you leave through Dave goes to Trees for the Future, a nonprofit that partners with farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to help build sustainable agricultural systems. So far, Dave users have helped plant over one million trees — a success that rarely happens when you go with a traditional short-term lender.
Dave can help if you’re on a tight budget and find yourself needing a little extra money to cover you until your next paycheck. But if you need more than $100 — or don’t have a consistent source of income — Dave might not be for you. Instead, you can browse other cash advance apps or read about alternative short-term loan options if you think you’ll need a larger loan amount.
Review by
Kellye Guinan is a seasoned financial writer with over 500 articles under her belt spanning all things loans from auto to personal to business and everything in between. With four years in the field and five years of research experience, she's able to make complex personal finance decisions easier for everyday people to tackle. When she's not up to her knees learning about the latest trends in lending, she spends her time improving her own financial literacy and expertise.
Dave is a solid option for anyone who struggles with frequent overdraft fees. With one of the lowest membership rates out there, you can take advantage of a small $100 advance — available within three days — to avoid overdrafting your bank account. It receives high ratings from its customers, and there are no interest or fees. This makes it significantly less expensive than the overdraft fee charged by most banks and the cost of borrowing a payday loan.
But repayments are automatically deducted from your next paycheck — and using an advance can still leave you in a cycle of borrowing to keep ends meet. You’ll also continue to pay even if you don’t use the app. And in July 2020, Dave suffered a data breach that gave hackers access to personally identifiable information like names, addresses and contact details. While there are no reported thefts yet, it may be worth changing your passwords or using unique login info if you decide to join.
Not sold on Dave? There are multiple pay advance app options out there to help you avoid short-term lending.
