About Maria

Maria Keller is a consumer credit analyst with more than a decade spent inside the small-dollar lending world — first underwriting installment and short-term loans at a regional consumer-finance company, later auditing fee disclosures and APR calculations for compliance with the Truth in Lending Act. That combination is unusual: she has both approved loans and checked whether the paperwork told borrowers the truth about what they'd pay.

She moved into writing because she kept meeting borrowers who'd signed for credit they didn't understand — not because they were careless, but because the real cost was buried under marketing. At loan-payday.com she does the opposite: she pulls the actual numbers from state regulators and the CFPB, runs the math herself, and explains it in plain English. Her data piece comparing the cost of a $500 payday loan across every state is built from primary regulator filings, not summaries.

Maria holds a bachelor's degree in finance and has completed coursework toward the Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC) credential. She is not a lender and does not earn commission on any loan; her job is to help readers see the full cost — including cheaper alternatives — before they borrow.

Areas of expertise

• ✓ The true cost of short-term credit and how APR is calculated
• ✓ Payday-loan alternatives — PALs, cash advance apps, earned-wage access
• ✓ State fee caps and lending-law differences
• ✓ Household budgeting and building an emergency buffer

Articles by Maria Keller

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