It's Christmas in July for Tennessee consumers. NewsRadio WGNS' Stephanie Carson has more on the new laws that take effect this month to protect state residents:

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Tennessee lawmakers prioritized consumer protection in the last legislative session, and this month many of those new laws take effect. Baylie Scott, assistant director of communications and marketing, Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, says the Tennessee General Assembly passed several consumer laws earlier this year that provide greater protection from military impersonators, improve assistance when recovering from identity theft and prevent credit-reporting companies from charging consumers when putting security freezes in place.

Scott says state lawmakers and Governor Haslam have "done a really great job of enforcing the importance of consumer protection and their emphasis on that, and I think that this is the last round of that."

The new laws took effect July first. While some progress was made, consumer advocates point out that Tennessee still is one of 27 states that allows payday lending, which critics say unfairly targets the poor and working class by charging exceedingly large interest rates.