Hawaii’s governor is threatening to veto a bill that purports to sync up Hawaii’s gift card laws with the new Federal standards, but also changes the rules to allow card issuers to add new fees that are currently not allowed.

Under the proposed law, retailers would be allowed to add an up-front fee that buyers pay when purchasing gift cards, up to 10 percent of the face value of the gift card, up to $5.  The law is being proposed under the guise of syncing up Hawaii’s rules with Federal gift card rules applicable under the Credit Card Act of 2009.  Newsflash Hawaii legislators, the stricter parts of those laws apply to your state whether or not you change your state laws.

This is a real shame, as Hawaii has one of the most consumer friendly gift card laws.  We can only hope the Governor vetoes the bill.  Under current law, gift cards (actually any electronic card with a banked value, so applies to prepaid debit cards as well) are not allowed to have any fees at all.