# Fact-Checking Policy | MeridianWallet > Our three-step fact-check process, primary-source list, fact-checker training, and review cycle — applied to every MeridianWallet page before and after publication. Источник: https://nimblepayday.com/fact-checking-policy/ --- # Fact-Checking Policy A three-step process applied to every numeric, legal, and regulatory claim on this site — before publication and on a recurring schedule afterward. OV **Last updated: May 24, 2026** · Reviewed by: [Owen Vargas, JD](/authors/owen-vargas/) **On this page** Why Does a Payday-Loan Comparison Site Need Fact-Checking? What Counts as a Trustworthy Source? How the Three-Step Verification Process Works What Happens When Sources Conflict? What Readers Can Verify Themselves Frequently Asked Questions How This Affects Your Loan Comparison Every rate, law, and statistic you see on MeridianWallet is verified against an original government or academic source before publication, then rechecked annually by a second reviewer. That two-person, three-step process is what separates a comparison site you can actually use from one that merely collects headlines. ### How Verification Works at a Glance - Every numeric, legal, or regulatory claim is verified against a primary source by someone who is not the author, before publication and again on a 12-month cycle. - State regulation hubs are re-checked every 6 months and on any legislative session result; city pages and Learn library articles are re-checked every 12 months and on any city-ordinance change. - The fact-checker pulls the original source within 48 hours of a claim being flagged. - If two reputable Tier-1 sources disagree, we surface the disagreement rather than pick a winner. - Census income, poverty, and unbanked/underbanked tables; Federal Reserve SHED and bank-fee data; and Pew Charitable Trusts small-dollar lending peer-reviewed research form the backbone of our data. - The second editorial reviewer spot-checks 20% of the fact-checker's verifications and signs off in writing. ## Why Does a Payday-Loan Comparison Site Need Fact-Checking? Because the cost of being wrong is not abstract. Borrowers who trust a stated rate that turns out to be outdated, or a state law that changed last session, can end up borrowing more expensively than necessary—or worse, from an unlicensed lender they believed was legitimate. Competitors that aggregate without verifying leave you to sort truth from marketing. We weigh that risk against the alternative before we publish anything. Consider the claim that "approximately 12 million Americans" use payday loans annually. That sentence probably needs a Tier-1 source, and we treat it accordingly: no passing along from a blog that cited a blog. The fact-checker traces it to census-derived estimates or Federal Reserve Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking data, or it does not appear on our site. ## What Counts as a Trustworthy Source? Not all sources carry the same weight, and our [editorial policy source hierarchy](/editorial-policy/#sources) reflects that. Tier-1 and Tier-2 sources—government statistical agencies, peer-reviewed research, official regulatory filings—are what we build articles around. Tier-3 and Tier-4 sources, such as industry trade publications or uncited news reports, require upgrading. Here is where the comparison-first approach matters. A site that treats all "reputable" sources as equal will occasionally propagate errors from well-intentioned secondary reporting. We do not. If the author cited a Tier-3 or Tier-4 source, the fact-checker tries to upgrade it to Tier-1 or Tier-2 before the claim ever reaches you. The extra step costs us time; it saves you from acting on filtered information. ## How the Three-Step Verification Process Works Each claim moves through extraction, source verification, and independent review before publication, then enters a recurring recheck cycle. 1. **Claim extraction.** The author does not simply "write an article." They produce a document with every statistical, legal, and regulatory claim isolated and tagged to a source. This forces explicit sourcing from the start, not retrofitted footnotes. 2. **Primary-source verification.** A separate fact-checker—someone who did not write the draft—pulls the original source and confirms the claim matches it. If the source is Tier-3 or Tier-4, the fact-checker attempts to locate a Tier-1 or Tier-2 equivalent. 3. **Reviewer cross-check.** The second editorial reviewer, credentialed and distinct from both author and fact-checker, spot-checks 20% of the verifications at random and signs off in writing. This is not a copy edit; it is an audit sample. The fact-checker pulls the original source within 48 hours if any reader or staff member questions a figure. Speed matters because borrowing decisions rarely wait. ## What Happens When Sources Conflict? We surface the disagreement. If two reputable Tier-1 sources offer different estimates—for instance, divergent measures of unbanked populations between Census tables and Federal Reserve SHED data—we present both, note the methodological difference, and let you see the range rather than forcing false precision. Sites that resolve every ambiguity into a single clean number are optimizing for shareability, not your decision quality. This approach extends to our recurring reviews. State regulation hubs are re-checked every 6 months and on any legislative session result because payday lending law changes faster than annual cycles can capture. City pages and the Learn library are re-checked every 12 months and on any city-ordinance change. The tier of urgency matches the rate of real-world change. ## What Readers Can Verify Themselves Transparency is only useful if you can act on it. Below is what to look for when evaluating any financial comparison site, including ours. - Check whether stated state interest-rate caps link to the actual statute or merely mention "state law." - Look for publication dates and last-verified dates on data articles; absence suggests irregular rechecking. - See if demographic claims (income, poverty, unbanked rates) trace to Census or Federal Reserve sources or rely on unlabeled surveys. - Ask whether peer-reviewed research is cited directly or filtered through intermediary summaries. - Verify that error corrections are documented and accessible; ours are listed at our [corrections page](/corrections/). ## Frequently Asked Questions How often do you recheck information I might rely on for a loan decision? State regulation hubs are re-checked every 6 months and on any legislative session result. City pages and Learn library content are re-checked every 12 months and on any city-ordinance change. All numeric, legal, and regulatory claims also undergo a full 12-month cycle review regardless of whether they appeared in a hub, city, or library article. What if I spot a number that looks wrong? Contact us. The fact-checker pulls the original source within 48 hours. If we erred, we publish a correction on our [corrections page](/corrections/) and update the article. We do not silently edit. Why can't you just use the same sources other sites use? We could, and it would be faster. But Tier-3 and Tier-4 sources—industry blogs, unchecked news aggregators—introduce error chains. Our policy requires upgrading to Tier-1 or Tier-2 where possible, which means more work and more reliable information for your comparison. Does the person who wrote the article also verify the facts? No. That separation is intentional. The author may cite sources in good faith; the fact-checker independently verifies them. A second editorial reviewer then spot-checks 20% of those verifications and signs off in writing. Three distinct people, none of whom can single-handedly approve a claim. Why do you sometimes show conflicting numbers from different government sources? Because hiding disagreement creates false confidence. If Census income tables and Federal Reserve SHED data produce different unbanked estimates, we show both and explain the methodological gap. You deserve to know the range, not a smoothed fiction. ## How This Affects Your Loan Comparison Accurate data does not make payday loans inexpensive. It makes comparison possible. When you see a state rate cap on MeridianWallet, it reflects the statute as of the last legislative session check, not a cached summary. When you see borrower demographics, they trace to Census, Federal Reserve, or Pew Charitable Trusts peer-reviewed research, not repurposed press releases. The point is not to suggest that verification equals recommendation. Weigh payday loans against alternatives—credit union small-dollar programs, employer salary advances, negotiated payment plans—using accurate terms from each. Our fact-checking exists so that when you do weigh options, the scale itself is not broken. #### Related policies The trust stack around our content. [Editorial policy →](/editorial-policy/) [Corrections log →](/corrections/) [Ownership disclosure →](/ownership-disclosure/) [Privacy policy →](/privacy/) [Terms of service →](/terms/) --- #### Meet the team [All 6 authors & reviewers →](/authors/)