Listed firms are taking longer to pay their bills, according to the latest Dun & Bradstreet survey.

The amount of time companies are taking to pay bills is improving and is nearly at pre-crisis levels, Dun and Bradstreet said.

A fall of 1.4 days since the previous quarter and 6.5 days in the past nine months has reduced business-to-business payment terms to 44.3 days, a level just days above pre-crisis terms.

This is still above the standard 30-day term for payments but it is the lowest since the third quarter of 2007.

A new study finds that 20% of New Zealanders with a mortgage say they would be prepared to miss a payment if they did not have enough money to pay all their bills.

The Dun & Bradstreet commissioned report Payment Priorities Study, released today, also finds that 51% admit to being late on at least one bill payment in the last 12 months.