Can old closed student Loans be sold for collection?

[Anonymous]

Hi, I need some advice.  I had two Wells Fargo private student loans which were opened in 2005. There were still balances on them when they defaulted.  It's been so long since this happened that the two Wells Fargo (OC) trade line have long since fallen off my credit report, it's been years.  In March 2020, however, ECMC began collection action on these two accounts, both of which are reporting on all three credit bureaus.  We are way outside the statute of limitations here.  Can they do that? I understand they can keep trying to collect forever though they'd never win in court, but can Wells Fargo sell the debt to a collection agency once the debt is outside the SOL and then the collection can report for seven more years? That just doesn't seem right to me.

[pizzadude]

Yes, WF can continue to collect on this, or sell it to collections - but this will not affect the credit reporting time period, which means they should be removed ~7.5 yrs from the DOFD of the loans, and shouldn't reappear.

The SOL is your defense if you are sued, but it also is not related to collecting or credit reporting.

How long ago did these drop from your reports, and do you have an idea on what the DOFD is ?

[Anonymous]

Honestly I'm not certain. I pulled an annual credit report I had printed of November of 2020 and neither Wells Fargo account was on the report under any of the bureaus.  If I'm able to determine the DOFD, and it is more than 7.5 years ago, can I dispute the collection?  My concern of course is that because it is an unpaid collection, getting it removed would do nothing as it's reporting each month, so if I did managed to get it removed, it would just pop back up the following month when it reports again.  So should I pay then dispute.  I am in the middle of a TPD but I'm worried because it's been under review for over six months.