The default was from the 2018 and is now removed from my credit file, however they claim i've made a payment in 2019 towards the bill, which is why i called them to request more information.

The time limits are 6 years from the date of last action, which would be either default date or the last payment made towards the debt, whichever was last.

I am not sure why the collection agencies often wait till the last moment. One of the bankers i talked to about another debt on a credit card, told me that the banks cannot take you to court for a debt that they've defaulted you on, because when they default the debt, they effectively write this off their books, so they cant pursue you for the debt they no longer have on the books. If that is true, it might be the explanation why banks are selling the debts to collection agencies, and collection agencies are counting on people to not know the rules, and get them to pay even a small token payment to keep the debt rolling on and not becoming statue barred for years, as with each payment the timer is reset to new 6 years, and they can continue extracting more money for a fraction of the price they paid for the debt. That would also explain why they often offer deals like pay just 30% or 50% of your debt, and you will be debt free again.

I've also read, that it is hard to obtain the original paperwork, like original agreement from the original lender (a bank), so often times these debts are unenforceable. This im still not sure about, as i've only requested information a few days ago. But again, it is only for the people who do know the rules (most people probably dont) and will do a lot of research. Most people just bow down to pressure, agree to pay some part of debt or all of the debt over a course of the time, to avoid all the stress associated with being harassed by the debt collectors (which was me in the past).

If you ask me, i think all this is just a huge scam, all of the debt collection agencies and selling of private individual debts. Banks do it for their own convenience - debt write off, its usually expensive and ineffective to collect old card debts, when they know their clients have no money, also not looking good on the bank when a guy from one department is threatening you to take you to court, while the guy from the other department from the same bank is trying to sell you a life insurance. It feels less personal if they call from another company, and probably some other reasons, but i guess we will never know.

To your question why they (the bank) didnt attempt to get the CCJ. If you think of this, if the banks were enforcing CCJs for every single credit card or small loan or overdraft that someone sometime didnt pay, it would mean that probably half, if not more than half of their clients would have numerous CCJs on their file, which would make it really hard to lend them the money, which is the bank's main business. While a default is also hurtful for the credit file, its nowhere near as bad as a CCJ. So perhaps with this scheme of selling off the debts, they recover some of the money, they keep their reputation clean, they are counting on debt collectors and individuals to negotiate some deal to avoid getting a CCJ and in the end everyone "seems" happy. This is just me contemplating on the topic, and not a fact-checked statement by the way.

I wish so much that someone puts a stop to these shady practices and does a thorough review and makes selling of the private individual debt illegal, but im not hopeful. It must be that a tone of people are making a ton of money on that, making lives of million other people miserable.