New Hampshire gift card rules for restaurants: expiry and fees

Gift cards bring in cash before the meal and new guests during the holidays, and most restaurant owners treat them as simple. In New Hampshire they are a little less simple, because the state has an unusually strict gift certificate law. It limits when a certificate can expire and bars the quiet fees that some retailers charge on unused balances. Know what the statute says, how it fits with federal rules and what to ask the Attorney General before you print a new batch. For your own cards, read the current text of the Consumer Protection Act, RSA 358-A:2, and ask a lawyer.

What does New Hampshire law say about expiration?

The 2025 text of RSA 358-A:2 makes it unlawful to sell a gift certificate with an expiration date when its face value is $250 or less. An older version of the statute used a lower threshold, so read the current text before you rely on any figure. In practice, a restaurant that sells a $50 or $100 gift card cannot print an expiry date on it. For certificates above the threshold, the statute says they expire when escheated to the state as abandoned property under the unclaimed property law, which has its own timing.

Are fees allowed on unused balances?

No. The same section prohibits dormancy fees, latency fees or any other administrative fees or service charges that reduce the redeemable amount of a gift certificate. If a card sits in a drawer for two years, the balance must be the same when it is brought in. Do not build a program that deducts a monthly charge, even a small one.

Does the law apply to restaurants?

The statute is aimed at businesses that sell goods or services, so a restaurant that sells gift certificates should assume it applies. Ask the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Bureau to confirm how it applies to restaurants and how it is enforced. Violations of the Consumer Protection Act can also lead to civil claims.

What about federal gift card rules?

Federal law has its own rules for gift cards that banks or card networks issue, and a federal court has held that New Hampshire's rules can be preempted as applied to some cards that national banks issue and retailers sell as their agents. That concerns bank-issued, open-loop cards, not a paper certificate or a card a restaurant issues itself. Ask a lawyer how it applies to the type of card you sell.

What happens to unclaimed balances?

New Hampshire has an unclaimed property law, RSA 471-C, which can require businesses to report and turn over abandoned property, including some unredeemed gift certificate value, after a dormancy period. The rules on what counts, the periods and the exemptions are technical, and accountants who write about New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine note that the three states differ. Ask your accountant whether you must file a report and how to track outstanding balances.

What should a restaurant do in practice?

• Print no expiration date on any certificate you sell at or below $250.
• Do not charge dormancy or inactivity fees.
• Keep a clear record of the balance on every card, paper or electronic.
• Honor a certificate that is old, even if the design has changed.
• Put the terms on the card in plain words, such as: redeemable for food and drink, not for cash.
• Decide ahead of time how you will handle a lost card, and write it down.
• Track outstanding balances on your books, and ask your accountant about reporting.

What about promotions with bonus cards?

A bonus card, such as a free $10 card with each $50 purchased, is a marketing promotion. Whether the law treats the bonus differently from a paid card is a question for a lawyer or the Attorney General. If you give a bonus card an expiry date, state clearly that it is a promotion and keep it separate from sold certificates.

How do you handle gift cards in a sale of the business?

Outstanding certificates are a liability. If you sell your restaurant, the buyer should honor them, and your sale agreement should say so. Customers will expect it.

What should you tell your staff?

Teach servers and the front desk the rules in a minute: no expiry, no fees, no cash back unless the law requires it, and how to look up a balance. A guest who is told wrongly that a card has expired will tell the town.

Are you hoping gift cards bring new guests as well as cash?

A gift card is a guest recommending you to a friend. Mosey is a food-first app where diners find places by dish, mood and neighborhood and rate what they actually ate. A restaurant can host a menu page, show its best-rated dishes and reply to guests, so the person who receives a card already knows what to order. Nobody can pay to outrank you there, because Mosey Gold is earned from ratings alone.

More guides for your business:

• New Hampshire Meals and Rooms Tax and tipped wages for restaurants
• What New Hampshire's 2026 tourism forecasts mean for restaurants
• Why are New Hampshire restaurant margins so thin in 2026?

More in the US guides for food businesses.