On the evening of Wednesday 26 August 2026, families walked into the Ōtāhuhu Town Hall on High Street carrying something most people keep out of sight, their unpaid bills. Waiting inside, from 4pm until 8pm, were staff from ASB, Kiwibank, Spark, One NZ, 2degrees, Contact Energy and Mercury, alongside financial mentors and community organisations, with free food and prizes laid on. It was New Zealand’s first Bring Your Bills event, organised by Māngere Budgeting Services Trust with the debt purchaser DebtManagers and run as part of Money Month in August.
The idea was imported. “Bring Your Bills has operated successfully in Australia for many years, and we are excited to introduce the initiative to New Zealand as part of NZ Money Month,” DebtManagers’ head of strategic partnerships and engagement, Malcolm Phillipps, said in the announcement on 20 August. The format is simple. Instead of a household ringing seven call centres, the seven providers come to one hall, and people move between the tables with their paperwork.
For the trust, which runs branches in Māngere, Ōtāhuhu and Ōtara and drop-in clinics in Onehunga, Panmure and Manurewa, the point was to reach people before the arrears turn into something worse. “Many families are struggling with the rising cost of living and do not always know where to go for help,” the trust’s chief executive, Lara Dolan, said. “The Bring Your Bills Event gives people the opportunity to speak directly with their service providers, understand their options and receive practical support, all in one place.” The trust said beforehand that it expected 300 to 400 families to come.
The scale of the need is in the trust’s own figures. In its last financial year it provided financial mentoring to 4,088 families and food assistance to 3,407 families, helping to feed more than 15,000 people. Its services include free and confidential one-to-one financial mentoring, financial education courses, debt support and advocacy, counselling and the Tātou Social Supermarket.
“This event is about removing barriers and making support easier to access. We want whānau to bring their bills, ask questions and leave with practical solutions that help reduce their financial pressure,” Dolan said.
The partner is the unusual part. DebtManagers describes itself as New Zealand’s leading purchaser of difficult debt. It buys overdue accounts from lenders and other creditors and then collects them, and says it does so through what it calls socially responsible debt management, with fairer repayment plans, flexible arrangements and no added fees or excessive interest. That puts a debt collector in the same hall as the families it might otherwise be ringing. For anyone on the receiving end of those calls, our guide to what a debt collector can and cannot do in New Zealand sets out the limits on their powers, the six-year rule on old debts and the options if you cannot pay.
Dolan said the event would make it easier for whānau to seek help before their bills and debts became unmanageable. That is the same message the trust has been giving in its public statements all year, as demand for its food and financial mentoring services has climbed. The trust’s own account of the event and DebtManagers’ announcement both carry the full list of participating organisations. Neither had published attendance figures as at 14 September 2026.
Have you been to a Bring Your Bills day, or sat down with a provider to sort out arrears? Share your experience in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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