New Hampshire will not let an obligor sell service contracts or extended warranties here until it registers with the Insurance Department and proves financial responsibility. RSA 415-C:4, I takes that proof as a bond of at least $25,000, or 5 percent of all consumer guaranty contracts sold in New Hampshire, whichever is greater, up to a maximum of $250,000, paired with a reserve account. Premiums cost 1% of the bond amount, with a $100 minimum, and your exact figure appears at the application.
















Nothing here waits in an underwriting queue. Enter the penal sum your registration requires, pay, and send the executed bond to the Insurance Department with your obligor registration. Here is the whole thing:
Your entity details, the penal sum RSA 415-C:4, I requires, the effective date, and a 1-, 2-, or 3-year term. That is the entire application — no charter, no bylaws, no financial statements at this step.
Your price is final at checkout — 1% of the bond amount, with a $100 minimum. A quick credit check may run behind the scenes; on this bond it is a soft pull that never affects your score, and never a hard inquiry.
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to file with the New Hampshire Insurance Department alongside your obligor registration form, the certified copy of your charter and bylaws, and the sworn certificate of your president and secretary. Wet-ink originals mailed on request.
New Hampshire treats a service contract as something short of insurance but too close to it to leave alone. RSA 415-C:1, III defines a consumer guaranty contract as an agreement in which one party, for consideration, promises to pay, indemnify, provide a specified or determinable amount or benefit, or do some act of value for another, based on a determinable risk contingency or peril, "but which is not insurance or does not warrant full application of the state's insurance statutes or rules" — and names service contracts, also known as extended warranties, on motor vehicles, homes, and consumer products as the core example. The party on the hook is the obligor: the person legally obligated to the contract holder. Service suppliers acting for a registered obligor are not obligors, and RSA 415-C:3, I bars any obligor from offering, administering, selling, soliciting, negotiating, or acting under one of these contracts in New Hampshire until it registers with the commissioner.
The bond is the first of the three ways RSA 415-C:4 lets an obligor prove financial responsibility to the insurance department, and it exists because the contract holder pays up front for a promise that has to be honored months or years later. It is a three-party arrangement: you (the principal), the surety carrier, and the New Hampshire Insurance Department (the obligee), with New Hampshire contract holders as the protected parties. What the state reaches for is obligor failure — claims left unpaid, repairs never performed, unearned contract fees never refunded when a contract of 12 months or more is cancelled, an obligor that simply stops answering. It is not insurance for you: if the surety pays, you repay the surety. And the bond does not stand alone — paragraph I pairs it with a reserve account of no less than 40 percent of the gross consideration received for all contract fees from contracts issued to New Hampshire residents, less claims paid.
There is no single statutory figure. Paragraph I sets the bond at at least $25,000 or 5 percent of all consumer guaranty contracts sold in New Hampshire, whichever is greater, up to a maximum of $250,000, so a small program files the floor and a large book files the cap. Two alternatives sit beside it: insuring every contract under a reimbursement insurance policy from an insurer authorized to write that coverage here (paragraph II), or showing a net worth or stockholders' equity of $25,000,000 or more, alone or together with a parent, on an audited financial statement or an SEC Form 10-K or 20-F, which is deemed acceptable if the commissioner does not reject it in writing within 60 days (paragraph III). Registration itself expires on the next June 14 unless renewed, so the bond has to stay continuous across that date — we track it and notify you 60 and 30 days out.
These are the actual issuing fields — your entity details, the penal sum your registration requires, the effective date, and your term. Your exact price is set at the application from a $100 minimum, and a quick credit check, if it runs at all, is a soft pull that never affects your score.
Start the application →Enter the penal sum RSA 415-C:4 requires, pay, and file the executed bond with the Insurance Department the same day. Free until issued.