Hawaii — Collection Agencies (HRS ch. 443B) + Collection Practices (ch. 480D) + SOL

Authority

Hawaii regulates collections on two parallel tracks, both enacted by the same 1987 act (L 1987, c 191):

• HRS ch. 443B (Collection Agencies) — registration, bond, and prohibited practices for anyone collecting for another. Administered and enforced by the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) (§443B-2), implemented by Haw. Admin. Rules ch. 16-112.
• HRS ch. 480D (Collection Practices) — a short mini-FDCPA for "debt collectors" who are not ch. 443B agencies, i.e. persons collecting consumer debts owed to themselves (original creditors, and debt buyers who collect their own paper without suing in their own name). No registration; conduct rules only.

Both chapters route their remedies through HRS ch. 480 (Hawaii's UDAP statute): a violation of either is a per-se §480-2 violation (§443B-20; §480D-4), which unlocks §480-13(b) — minimum $1,000 or treble damages, whichever is greater, plus fees and costs — and AG / Office of Consumer Protection civil penalties of $500–$10,000 per violation, per day (§480-3.1). Statute of limitations for suit on a debt: HRS §657-1(1) — six years; notes ride §490:3-118 (UCC Art. 3) at six years.

Verification note. capitol.hawaii.gov — the Legislature's own HRS host — is hard-blocked by Cloudflare ("Sorry, you have been blocked"), 403 to automated fetch, to plain curl, and to an ordinary browser request alike. The brief's prior that the site was "believed clean" is refuted. Two workarounds were found and both are official:

1. data.capitol.hawaii.gov — the same publisher (Hawaii State Legislature), same /hrscurrent/… path structure, no WAF, serves to ordinary curl. A byte-for-byte diff of §657-1 from both hosts was identical. This host also serves the Session Laws of Hawaii at /sessions/sessionlaws/Years/SLH<year>/SLH<year>_Act<n>.pdf, which is how the effective dates above were verified. This is the recommended path — use it, not the archive.
2. www.capitol.hawaii.gov will serve if you force HTTP/1.1 plus a full browser header set (--http1.1 with Sec-Fetch-Dest/Mode/Site/User, Accept-Language, Upgrade-Insecure-Requests). Fragile; kept only as a fallback.

cca.hawaii.gov (DCCA) fetches cleanly to an ordinary browser request and needs no special handling. All text below was pulled on 2026-08-12; the HRS files on the official file server carry a 2026-01-05 compilation timestamp.

Operative text

Scope, track 1 — who is a "collection agency" (§443B-1)

"Collection agency" means any person, whether located within or outside this State, who by oneself or through others offers to undertake or holds oneself out as being able to undertake or does undertake to collect for another person, claims or money due on accounts or other forms of indebtedness for a commission, fixed fee, or a portion of the sums so collected.

"Collection agency" includes: (1) Any person using any name other than the person's own in collecting the person's own claims with the intention of conveying, or which tends to convey the impression that a third party has been employed; (2) Any person who, in the conduct of the person's business for a fee, regularly repossesses any merchandise or chattels for another; and (3) Any person who regularly accepts the assignment of claims or money due on accounts or other forms of indebtedness and brings suits upon the assigned claims or money due on accounts or other forms of indebtedness in the person's own name; provided that any suits shall be initiated and prosecuted by an attorney who shall have been appointed by the assignee.

"Collection agency" does not include licensed attorneys at law acting within the scope of their profession, licensed real estate brokers, and salespersons residing in this State when engaged in the regular practice of their profession, nor banks, trust companies, building and loan associations, savings and loan associations, financial services loan companies, credit unions, companies doing an escrow business, individuals regularly employed on a regular wage or salary in the capacity of credit persons or in other similar capacity for a single employer who is not a collection agency, nor any public officer or any person acting under an order of court.

"Debt" means any obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay money or other forms of payment arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance, or services, which are the subject of the transaction, are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, whether or not such obligation has been reduced to judgment. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-1

Note paragraph (3): a debt buyer that regularly takes assignment of claims and sues in its own name is a collection agency and must register — even though it is collecting its own paper.

Scope, track 2 — ch. 480D catches everyone ch. 443B misses (§§480D-1, 480D-2)

This chapter is intended to ensure that consumers are not subjected to unfair, deceptive, coercive, abusive, or harassing conduct in collection activities that are covered by this chapter. This chapter is intended to cover collection activities by debt collectors in collecting consumer debts. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §480D-1

"Consumer debt" means any debt of a natural person incurred primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. "Debt" means any obligation or alleged obligation of a person to pay money arising out of any transaction, whether or not the obligation has been reduced to judgment. "Debt collector" means any person, who is not a collection agency regulated pursuant to chapter 443B, and who in the regular course of business collects or attempts to collect consumer debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due to the collector. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §480D-2

Entry gate — registration, not license (§§443B-3, 443B-5, 443B-6)

(a) No collection agency shall collect or attempt to collect any money or any other forms of indebtedness alleged to be due and owing from any person who resides or does business in this State without first registering under this chapter. (b) Registration shall include: (1) Submission of a complete application for registration; (2) Submission of a certificate of good standing or a certificate of authority from the business registration division; (3) Payment of appropriate fees; (4) Filing and maintenance of a bond in the amount prescribed in section 443B-5; (5) Maintenance of a regular active business office in the State; and (6) Designation of a principal collector, as prescribed in section 443B-6. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-3

(a) Each collection agency shall file and maintain with the director a bond in the penal sum of $25,000 for the first office in this State and $15,000 for each additional office in this State. … (e) Failure, refusal, or neglect of a collection agency to maintain in full force and effect a bond as required by this section shall cause the automatic suspension of the registration of the collection agency effective as of the date of expiration, termination, or cancellation of the bond. … Failure to effect a reinstatement of a suspended registration within sixty days of the expiration of the requirements of registration shall cause it to be forfeited … (f) Upon expiration, termination, or cancellation of the bond, the collection agency shall cease to do business as a collection agency in this State … — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-5

(a) A collection agency shall have and maintain a regular active business office in the State for the purpose of conducting collection agency business. The business office shall be open to the public during stated reasonable business hours. (b) Every collection agency shall designate a principal collector to assume responsibility for the direct management and control of the daily operation of the office. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-6

HAR §16-112-11 defines what counts as that office:

A regular active business office shall include the following: (1) A physical place, other than a post office box, a drop box, telephone, telephone answering service, or motor vehicle, where business is conducted; (2) A natural person to staff the office. The natural person shall be the principal collector … (3) A business telephone number; (4) A schedule of operation that states reasonable business hours according to Hawaiian standard time … — Haw. Admin. Rules §16-112-11

The out-of-state exemption — the way to work HI without an office (§443B-3.5)

(b) To be designated as an exempt out-of-state collection agency, a collection agency shall: (1) Not have any employees or agents located in the State who engage in the collection of debts for another person; (2) Not have any business location or office in the State that engages in collection agency activities; (3) Hold a current, unrestricted, and unconditional license, permit, or registration as a collection agency in the reciprocal state identified in its application; (4) Limit its collection activity in the State to the collection of debts from residents of the State on behalf of out-of-state clients through interstate communication by telephone, mail, facsimile, or electronic mail; and (5) Not collect debts on behalf of creditors who have a business presence in the State. … (e) A collection agency that is designated as an exempt out-of-state collection agency shall be exempt from the registration requirements of this chapter and bonding requirements of section 443B-5; provided that this section shall not exempt a collection agency from the requirements of other laws that regulate collection practices in the State, including but not limited to the requirements of chapter 480D and this chapter. (f) A designated exempt out-of-state collection agency shall not: … (5) Bring or maintain any action involving the collection of debts of its clients in any court of the State; (6) Communicate with debtors in the State other than by interstate communication by telephone, mail, facsimile, or electronic mail; … (g) A collection agency shall not collect or attempt to collect any money or any other form of indebtedness alleged to be due and owing from any person who resides or does business in the State without first registering under this chapter, or being designated as an exempt out-of-state collection agency pursuant to this section. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-3.5 (as am. Act 230 §13, SLH 2021)

"Reciprocal state" is defined in §443B-3.5(n) as one whose licensing requirements are "at a minimum substantially equivalent" to Hawaii's including the §443B-5 bond, and that does not require a Hawaii agency to license for the mirror-image interstate activity.

Penalties and unregistered activity (§§443B-14, 443B-4.55, 443B-4.60, 443B-4.63, 443B-13)

Any violation of this chapter is punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000 per violation. Any officer, agent, or employee of a collection agency who personally participates in any violation of this chapter by the collection agency shall be subject to penalties prescribed in this section. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-14 (as am. L 2012, c 52, §2)

Evidence that a collection agency has committed any act which is prohibited by this chapter shall be sufficient to justify the remedies set forth in this chapter, without proof of a general course of conduct. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-4.55

Any collection agency whose registration has been terminated but continues to conduct business as a collection agency shall be engaging in an unregistered activity, and any agency so engaged, and any employee or agent of the agency who engages in an unregistered activity, shall be subject to the sanctions provided in this chapter. Nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to limit or prohibit other available civil or criminal actions … — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-4.60

It is unlawful for any person who is not a registered collection agency to design, compile, or furnish any form knowing that the form could be used to create a belief in a debtor that the person who designed, compiled or furnished the form is a collection agency. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-4.63

§443B-13 gives the district courts concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit courts "in all criminal prosecutions for violations of this chapter." Grounds for fine / revocation / suspension / non-renewal are enumerated at §443B-4.57 (dishonesty or gross negligence, advertising or acting without a current registration, commingling, breach of fiduciary duty, failure to report a material change, false information).

Fee rule — Hawaii's hardest edge (§443B-9)

(a) A collection agency shall not collect, or attempt to collect, any collection fee or attorney's fee or commission from any debtor; provided that an attorney's fee or commission may be collected after filing of a suit against any debtor and the fee or commission shall not be in excess of twenty-five per cent of the unpaid principal balance. All attorney's fees or commissions collected by a collection agency shall be remitted to the attorney and no portion of the collection shall be retained by the collection agency. (b) This section shall not prohibit a collection agency from collecting, or attempting to collect, from a debtor, a commission authorized under a contract with the University of Hawaii, a contract with the department of taxation pursuant to sections 231-13 and 231-26, or a contract with the executive office on early learning. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-9 (as am. Act 210 §8, SLH 2021)

Both chapters separately ban unauthorized incidental charges:

(4) The collection of or the attempt to collect any interest or other charge, fee, or expense incidental to the principal obligation unless the interest or incidental fee, charge, or expense is expressly authorized by the agreement creating the obligation and legally chargeable to the debtor or alleged debtor; or unless the interest or incidental fee, charge, or expense is expressly authorized by law; — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-19(4); §443B-19(3) separately bans collecting "all or any part of the collection agency's fees or charges for services rendered" from the debtor

Prohibited practices, track 1 (§§443B-15 to 443B-19)

No collection agency shall collect or attempt to collect any money or other forms of indebtedness alleged to be due and owing by means of any threat, coercion, or attempt to coerce, including any conduct which is described as follows: (1) The use, or express or implicit threat of use, of violence or other criminal means …; (2) The accusation or threat to falsely accuse any person of fraud or any crime …; (3) False accusations made to another person, including any credit reporting agency, that a debtor or an alleged debtor has not paid a just debt, or threat to so make false accusations; (4) The threat to sell or assign to another the obligation of a debtor … with an attending representation or implication that the result of the sale or assignment would be that the debtor … would lose any defense to the claim or would be subjected to harsh, vindictive, or abusive collection attempts; and (5) The threat that nonpayment of an alleged claim will result in the arrest of any person. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-15

No collection agency shall oppress, harass, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of or attempt to collect any claim … in any of the following ways: (1) The use of profane or obscene language that is intended to abuse the hearer or reader; (2) The placement of telephone calls without disclosure of the caller's identity or with the intent to harass, or threaten any person at the called number; and (3) Causing expense to any person in the form of long distance telephone tolls, telegram fees, or other charge incurred by a medium of communication, by concealment of the true purpose of the notice, letter, message, or communication. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-16

No collection agency shall unreasonably publicize information relating to any alleged indebtedness or debtor, in any of the following ways: … (3) The disclosure, publication, or communication of any information by a collection agency relating to the indebtedness of a debtor … by publishing or posting any list of debtors, except for the publication of "stop lists" to point-of-sale locations where credit is extended …; and (4) The use of any form of communication by a collection agency to the debtor …, which ordinarily may be seen by any other person, that displays or conveys any information about the alleged claim other than the name, address, and phone number of the collection agency. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-17

Hawaii's mini-Miranda, and a disclosure the FDCPA does not require:

(2) The failure to disclose clearly: (A) In the initial written and initial oral communication made to collect, or attempt to collect, a claim or to obtain … information about a debtor …, that the collection agency is attempting to collect a claim and that any information obtained will be used for that purpose; and (B) In subsequent communications that the communication is from a debt collector; provided that this paragraph shall not apply to a formal pleading made in connection with a legal action; … (4) The failure to disclose clearly the name and full business address of the person to whom the claim has been assigned for collection or to whom the claim is owed at the time of making any demand for money; — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-18(2), (4)

No collection agency shall use unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any claim in any of the following ways: (1) The seeking or obtaining of any written statement or acknowledgment in any form that a debtor … obligation is one incurred for necessities of life where the original obligation was not in fact incurred for these necessities; (2) The seeking or obtaining of any written statement or acknowledgment in any form containing an affirmation of any obligation by a debtor … who has been declared bankrupt, without clearly disclosing the nature and consequences of the affirmation and the fact that the debtor … is not legally obligated to make the affirmation; … (5) Any communication with a debtor or alleged debtor whenever it appears that the debtor … is represented by an attorney and the attorney's name and address are known. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-19

Prohibited practices, track 2 — first-party collectors (§480D-3)

It shall be a prohibited practice for any debt collector to engage in any of the following practices while collecting a consumer debt: (1) To threaten the use of violence or other criminal means to cause harm to the physical person, reputation, or property of any person; (2) To falsely accuse or threaten to falsely accuse any person of fraud or any other criminal conduct; (3) To make false accusations or threaten to make false accusations, to another person, including any credit reporting agency, that a debt has not been paid; (4) To threaten that nonpayment of a debt will result in the arrest of any person; (5) To threaten to turn over the collection of the debt to a person who will engage in practices prohibited by this section; (6) To threaten to sell or assign the debt with statements that, or implying that, the sale or assignment will cause the debtor to lose a defense or legal right as a result of the sale or assignment; (7) To use profane or obscene language that is intended to abuse the hearer or reader; (8) To disclose, publish, or communicate any false and material information relating to the indebtedness; (9) To represent that an existing obligation may be increased by attorney's fees, investigation fees, service fees, and other fees or charges when in fact the fees or charges may not legally be added to the existing obligations; (10) To seek or obtain any statement or acknowledgment that the debt was incurred for necessities of life when in fact the debt was not so incurred; or (11) To collect or attempt to collect any interest, charge, fee, or expense incidental to the debt unless the additions are authorized by the agreement or by law. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §480D-3

A narrow bona-fide-error defense, available only for §480D-3(3) and (8):

(b) In any case involving violations of section 480D-3(3) or (8), the debt collector shall not be subject to the provisions of subsection (a) if the debt collector can prove that the violation resulted from a bona fide error, notwithstanding the maintenance of procedures reasonably adopted to avoid such error. Examples of bona fide error include, but are not limited to, clerical miscalculations, computer malfunction, printing errors, and computer programming errors. If bona fide error is proven, the debt collector shall: (1) Correct the error as expeditiously as possible …; and (2) Be liable for any actual damages suffered by the consumer including the time and expense required to correct the error. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §480D-4(b)

Client funds — trust account and 30-day remittance (§§443B-8, 443B-10)

(b) A collection agency shall not commingle the money of its clients with its own, but shall maintain a separate trust account for clients' funds in a federally insured financial institution. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-8(b)

Every collection agency shall, within thirty days after the close of each calendar month, report and pay to its clients the net amount due to each client out of all collections made during the preceding calendar month. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §443B-10

HAR §§16-112-15 and 16-112-16 require per-account and per-client records kept six years from the last transaction.

Call-frequency cap and call-time window — VERIFIED NEGATIVE

Neither exists in Hawaii law. Method: the complete text of ch. 443B (all 37 section files on the official file server, §443B-1 through §443B-21 including every 4.5x/4.6x subsection) and of ch. 480D (§§480D-1 through 480D-5, the entire chapter) was pulled and read on 2026-08-12, then searched end-to-end for a.m., p.m., hours, inconvenient, frequen*, and seven. The only hit in either chapter is §443B-6's requirement that the agency's own office keep "reasonable business hours" — nothing about when or how often a debtor may be contacted. All of HAR ch. 16-112 was read as well (the DCCA's implementing rules; its Subchapter 4 is a pure cross-reference to the department's general practice-and-procedure rules in HAR ch. 16-201). DCCA's own "Statute/Rule Chapter" page for the Collection Agency Program lists exactly three authorities — HAR ch. 16-112, HRS ch. 443B, and HRS ch. 436B (the Uniform Professional and Vocational Licensing Act) — so no fourth source was missed. The only frequency-adjacent provision anywhere is the intent standard in §443B-16(2) (calls placed "with the intent to harass, or threaten").

Consequence: Reg F's 7-in-7 presumption (12 CFR 1006.14(b)(2)) and the 8am–9pm consumer-local-time window (12 CFR 1006.6(b)(1)) are the operative limits in Hawaii, with no state overlay.

Time-barred-debt disclosure and debt-buyer suit bar — VERIFIED NEGATIVE

Same method, same result — medical, time-barred, and limitation return no operative provision in either chapter (the only medical hits are in the official case annotations describing a health plan's recovery vendor). Hawaii has no analog to Tex. Fin. Code §392.307, Cal. Civ. Code §1788.14(d), or 940 CMR 7.07(24): no scripted time-barred notice, no statutory bar on suing or arbitrating expired debt, and no statutory anti-revival rule. The expiry of §657-1 is an affirmative defense only. Filing suit on a debt the collector knows to be time-barred remains attackable as a §443B-18(5) misrepresentation of "the character, extent, or amount of a claim … or of its status in any legal proceeding" and as a §480-2 unfair practice, but that is a case-by-case standard, not a bright line.

Statute of limitations — §657-1, one six-year bucket

§657-1 Six years. The following actions shall be commenced within six years next after the cause of action accrued, and not after: (1) Actions for the recovery of any debt founded upon any contract, obligation, or liability, excepting such as are brought upon the judgment or decree of a court; excepting further that actions for the recovery of any debt founded upon any contract, obligation, or liability made pursuant to chapter 577A shall be governed by chapter 577A; (2) Actions upon judgments or decrees rendered in any court not of record in the State, or, subject to section 657-9, in any court of record in any foreign jurisdiction; (3) Actions for taking or detaining any goods or chattels, including actions in the nature of replevin; and (4) Personal actions of any nature whatsoever not specifically covered by the laws of the State. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §657-1

There is no written/oral split. §657-1(1) reaches "any debt founded upon any contract, obligation, or liability" without qualification, and §657-1(4) is a six-year catch-all for anything left over. The complete Part I index of ch. 657 (§§657-1 through 657-24, read in full) contains no open-account, stated-account, or oral-contract section — the only account provision is an accrual rule:

In all actions in the nature of debt, account, or assumpsit, brought to recover any balance due upon a mutual, open, and current account, the cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued from the time of the last item proved in the account. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §657-2

The official HRS annotation to §657-1 records that merchants' accounts are not exempt from the six-year rule ("Miscellaneous. Merchants' accounts not exempt. 2 H. 730 (1865)").

Negotiable notes — §490:3-118 (six years, uniform text)

(a) Except as provided in subsection (e), an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay a note payable at a definite time must be commenced within six years after the due date or dates stated in the note or, if a due date is accelerated, within six years after the accelerated due date. (b) Except as provided in subsection (d) or (e), if demand for payment is made to the maker of a note payable on demand, an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay the note must be commenced within six years after the demand. If no demand for payment is made to the maker, an action to enforce the note is barred if neither principal nor interest on the note has been paid for a continuous period of ten years. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §490:3-118(a)–(b) (L 1991, c 118, pt of §1)

§490:3-118(c)–(g) carry the uniform shorter periods: unaccepted drafts 3 years from dishonor or 10 years from the date of the draft (whichever expires first); certified/teller's/cashier's/traveler's checks 3 years from demand; certificates of deposit 6 years from demand; accepted drafts 6 years; conversion/warranty/residual Art. 3 claims 3 years.

Special-category SOL — minor-consented medical debt (§577A-5)

The §657-1(1) carve-out points here. HRS ch. 577A lets a minor aged 14–17 consent in their own right to care for pregnancy, sexually transmitted infection, and family planning (§577A-2), makes the minor financially responsible and the parent not liable (§577A-4(a)), and then:

Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, an action to recover any debt founded upon any contract, obligation, or liability made pursuant to this chapter shall not commence until a minor has reached the age of majority, provided that said action shall commence within two years of the date a minor reaches the age of majority. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §577A-5 (L 1978, c 109, §2)

This is the only medical-debt-specific limitations rule in Hawaii law. It is a two-year period running from the debtor's 18th birthday, not six years from default.

Judgments — §657-5 (ten years, extendable once to twenty)

Unless an extension is granted, every judgment and decree of any court of the State shall be presumed to be paid and discharged at the expiration of ten years after the judgment or decree was rendered. No action shall be commenced after the expiration of ten years from the date a judgment or decree was rendered or extended. No extension … shall be granted unless the extension is sought within ten years of the date the original judgment or decree was rendered. A court shall not extend any judgment or decree beyond twenty years from the date of the original judgment or decree. … — Haw. Rev. Stat. §657-5

Tolling and the borrowing statute

If at any time when any cause of action specified in this part or section 663-3 accrues against any person, the person is out of the State, the action may be commenced within the terms respectively limited, after the return of the person into the State, and if, after the cause of action has accrued, the person departs from and resides out of the State, the time of the person's absence shall not be deemed or taken as any part of the time limited for the commencement of the action. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §657-18

The official annotation narrows it: "Section did not apply to toll the no-fault statute of limitations where a nonresident motorist defendant was at all times subject to the jurisdiction of Hawaii's courts and amenable to service of process under its long-arm statutes … 89 H. 1, 967 P.2d (1998)" (annotation to §657-18).

Hawaii's borrowing statute is a hard bar, not a shorter-period rule:

When a cause of action has arisen in any foreign jurisdiction, and by the laws thereof an action thereon cannot there be maintained against a person, by reason of the lapse of time, an action thereon shall not be maintained against the person in this State, except in favor of a domiciled resident thereof, who has held the cause of action from the time it accrued. — Haw. Rev. Stat. §657-9

Fraudulent concealment gives a six-year discovery extension (§657-20). Disability tolling (§657-13: under 18, insane, imprisoned) runs to the plaintiff, not the debtor, and only if the disability existed at accrual (§657-14); two or more disabilities must all be removed before the clock attaches (§657-15).

Revival — no statute; common law only

Chapter 657 contains no acknowledgment, new-promise, or part-payment section. Verified by reading the complete chapter index (§§657-1 to 657-38): §657-14 — the section the dispatcher's lead pointed at — is "Disability to exist at accrual of action," not a revival rule. Lead refuted. Hawaii's statute of frauds (§656-1) lists eight categories requiring a signed writing and a promise to pay a debt barred by limitations is not among them, so no writing requirement attaches by that route either.

What exists is common law, recorded in the official HRS annotations to §657-1 (published by the Legislative Reference Bureau as part of the HRS):

New promise. Part payment as new promise. 9 H. 272 (1893); 11 H. 706 (1899); 24 H. 216 (1918). In order to remove bar must be express promise or admission of debt which party is liable to pay. 18 H. 569 (1908); 23 H. 696 (1917). Acknowledgment and new promise. 21 H. 167 (1912). Payment by one joint and several obligor without knowledge of others start statute anew against all. 22 H. 140 (1914). Interest payment by maker without knowledge of guarantor does not start statute anew against guarantor. 28 H. 275 (1925). Effect of new promise on limitation period. 57 H. 429, 558 P.2d 479 (1977). A new promise by debtor to pay debt, whether then barred by applicable statute of limitations or not, binds debtor for new period. 2 H. App. 383, 633 P.2d 550 (1981). — Case Notes to Haw. Rev. Stat. §657-1 (official HRS annotations)

Miscellaneous. … Revival by statute of barred claim. 33 H. 379 (1935). — Case Notes to Haw. Rev. Stat. §657-1

Plain English

Interpretation — the quotes above win on any conflict.

• Registration, not a license, and only for third-party collectors. Register with the DCCA Director; there is no board and no exam. The gate is a $25,000 bond for the first Hawaii office plus $15,000 per additional office, a certificate of good standing, a physical Hawaii office (not a PO box or answering service), and a named principal collector. Registration renews biennially by June 30 of each even-numbered year. Per DCCA's own program page (checked 2026-08-12): on-time renewal $284, late restoration $364 within 60 days of expiry, after which the registration terminates and you reapply as new. Per DCCA's registration application form (rev. 2026-07): initial fees are $309 if you register between July 1 of an even-numbered year and June 30 of an odd-numbered year (application $25 + registration $68 + half renewal $68 + Compliance Resolution Fund $148), or $167 in the other half of the cycle; branch office $25 plus its own $15,000 bond.
• You can work Hawaii from the mainland without an office — but the §443B-3.5 exemption is narrow. You need a real license in a genuinely reciprocal state, you may only work debts of Hawaii residents for out-of-state clients, contact must be interstate (phone/mail/fax/email) only, you may not take clients with a Hawaii business presence, and you may not sue in any Hawaii court. Losing the home-state license forfeits the exemption automatically and retroactively — everything after that date is unregistered activity.
• Original creditors are covered, on the other track. Hawaii solved the first-party problem by writing a second chapter rather than by broadening the first. If you collect your own consumer paper, ch. 443B does not touch you (no registration, no bond) but ch. 480D does — its eleven prohibited practices bind you, and each one is a per-se UDAP violation with $1,000-or-treble exposure. The only way to escape both is not to be collecting a consumer debt at all.
• Debt buyers sit in a definitional split. Buy debt and sue on it in your own name as a regular practice → §443B-1(3) makes you a collection agency: register, bond, Hawaii office. Buy debt and work it without suing → you are not collecting "for another," so you fall to ch. 480D as a first-party debt collector. Collect for a creditor that still owns the paper → straightforwardly ch. 443B.
• Never charge the debtor a collection fee. §443B-9 is stricter than most states: no collection fee, no attorney's fee, no commission from the debtor at all, with one exception — after suit is filed, an attorney's fee or commission capped at 25% of the unpaid principal, which must be passed through to the attorney in full with nothing retained. The University of Hawaii, Department of Taxation, and Executive Office on Early Learning contracts are the only carve-outs.
• The mini-Miranda is broader than federal. §443B-18(2)(A) requires the disclosure in the initial oral communication as well as the initial written one, and §443B-18(4) separately requires disclosing "the name and full business address" of the assignee or owner of the claim at the time of making any demand for money — not merely on request, and not only in the validation notice.
• No call cap, no call window. Reg F governs both, unmodified.
• SOL is six years for everything consumer-facing — written contracts, oral contracts, credit cards, open accounts, and any residual claim all ride §657-1. Notes ride §490:3-118 at six years too, so the number does not change; what changes is the demand-note behavior (clock starts at demand, with a 10-year no-payment backstop).
• Revival is live in Hawaii, including after expiry. Unlike Texas, Maryland, or Nevada, Hawaii has no statute killing post-expiry revival and no writing requirement. The official annotations say a new promise binds the debtor for a new period "whether then barred … or not," and part payment has long been treated as a new promise. Hawaii is therefore one of the states where an expired debt can come back — which is exactly why it must not be modeled as an automatic behavior in a tool.
• Remedies are steep. A single violation of either chapter is a §480-2 violation → §480-13(b) gives the consumer $1,000 minimum or treble damages, whichever is greater, plus fees and costs ($5,000 minimum if the consumer is an elder, §480-13(b)(1) with the §480-13.5 factors). The AG or OCP can add $500–$10,000 per violation with each day a separate violation (§480-3.1). Consumer claims under ch. 480 have their own four-year SOL (§480-24).

Traps / edge cases

• Do not call it a license. Hawaii issues a certificate of registration (§443B-4.51). DCCA's own consumer-facing pages use "license" loosely (the renewal table is headed "Collection Agency License Types" with codes COLA/COLAX/COLB/COLXB), but the statute and rules say registration throughout. Compliance copy should track the statute.
• The Hawaii-office requirement is the real barrier, not the bond. A registered agency must maintain a staffed physical office in the State with a natural-person principal collector (§§443B-3(b)(5), 443B-6; HAR §16-112-11). Most mainland agencies will want §443B-3.5 instead — and §443B-3.5(f)(5) then forbids them from filing suit in Hawaii, which means Hawaii litigation requires either a registered agency or forwarding to Hawaii counsel.
• Bond lapse is self-executing. §443B-5(e) suspends the registration on the bond's cancellation date with no hearing and no notice; 60 days later it forfeits. §443B-5(f) requires the agency to cease doing business in Hawaii immediately on lapse. A surety's 60-day cancellation notice (§443B-5(d)) is the only warning.
• "Collection agency" is broader than the FDCPA's "debt collector." It reaches repossession companies collecting for another (§443B-1(2)) and anyone collecting their own claims under a name other than their own (§443B-1(1)) — the alias trap. The official annotation records a subrogation/"claims recovery services" vendor for a health plan being held a collection agency subject to §443B-3 (117 H. 153, 177 P.3d 341 (2008)) — subrogation and recovery vendors are in scope.
• Registration failure alone may not yield consumer damages. The official annotations to §443B-3 and §443B-20 record that a plaintiff who paid a lien to an unregistered collector did not thereby suffer an injury supporting a §480-13(b) suit, and that a plaintiff failed to establish damage from a failure to register (117 H. 153; 183 F. Supp. 2d 1234 (2002)). Standing to sue for a ch. 443B violation exists (78 H. 213 (App.), 891 P.2d 300 (1995)) but injury must still be proven. This does not reduce the DCCA's own enforcement exposure (§443B-14's $5,000/violation, §443B-4.57 revocation).
• Banks are out of ch. 443B, and the annotation says so ("Because defendant was a bank, it was not a collection agency subject to this chapter's requirements. 901 F. Supp. 2d 1253 (2012)") — but a bank collecting its own consumer debt is still a §480D-2 "debt collector." The exemptions in §443B-1 do not carry over to ch. 480D; §480D-2 exempts only ch. 443B agencies.
• Individual liability. §443B-14 reaches any "officer, agent, or employee … who personally participates" in a violation. Collector-level conduct is not purely an employer problem in Hawaii.
• One act is enough. §443B-4.55 removes any pattern-or-practice requirement.
• Open-account accrual is a fight, not a gift. §657-2's last-item rule applies to a "mutual, open, and current account" — mutual meaning reciprocal demands running both ways. A one-way revolving credit card account is arguably not "mutual," in which case accrual falls back to ordinary breach/default rules. UNVERIFIED — no Hawaii appellate holding located applying or refusing §657-2 to a consumer credit card. Do not assume last-payment accrual for cards in Hawaii; treat accrual as attorney-review territory.
• Revival is the opposite of the Texas rule — do not inherit it. Hawaii has no §392.307(d) analog. Post-expiry revival by new promise is supported by the official annotations, and part payment has been treated as a new promise since the 1890s. Two limits worth encoding: a joint and several obligor's payment restarts the clock against all obligors even without their knowledge (22 H. 140 (1914)), but a maker's interest payment does not restart it against a guarantor (28 H. 275 (1925)). None of this is statutory; ship it as labeled case-law interpretation with attorney review, never as an automatic re-age.
• The §657-1(1) chapter-577A carve-out is a real medical-debt rule. Debt for minor-consented reproductive-health, STI, and family-planning care does not run six years from service — the action cannot commence until the debtor turns 18 and must be filed within two years of that birthday (§577A-5). The parent or guardian is not liable at all (§577A-4(a)), and §577A-4(c) requires covered entities to keep such care from being disclosed to the parent — so routing these accounts to a parent's address is both a §577A-4 and a HIPAA problem, not merely a wrong-party problem.
• §657-9 is a hard borrowing bar. If the claim arose in another state and is time-barred there, it cannot be maintained in Hawaii at all — the only escape is a Hawaii-domiciled plaintiff who has held the claim since accrual. Multi-state placements need the origin state's clock checked, not just Hawaii's six years.
• Absence tolling is narrower than it reads. §657-18 suspends the clock during the debtor's absence on its face, but the official annotation records it not applying where the defendant was at all times amenable to service under Hawaii's long-arm statutes (89 H. 1, 967 P.2d (1998)). Never auto-toll on an out-of-state address.
• Judgment extension is once-and-only-within-ten-years. §657-5 requires the extension motion to be filed within the original ten years and caps total life at twenty. Miss the ten-year mark and the judgment is gone — there is no revival mechanism.
• The §480-3.1 per-day multiplier is the sleeper. "Each day that a violation of section 480-2 occurs shall be a separate violation," and every ch. 443B or ch. 480D breach is a §480-2 violation. A systemic configuration error left running for a month is not one violation.

Related

• ../federal/reg-f/call-frequency.md — governs HI unmodified
• ../federal/reg-f/time-barred-debt.md — governs HI unmodified (no state script)
• ../federal/fdcpa/overview.md
• ./tx.md — contrast: TX bars debt-buyer revival by statute; HI has no anti-revival rule at all
• ./ca.md — contrast: CA licenses collectors and scripts a time-barred notice; HI does neither
• ./_matrix.md