Mr. Claus paid your loan bro. As long as you get a statement shows zero balance, or just keep a print out of that email, you shouldn't worry about it until you receive a statement that asks for payment
My vote is clerical error, which will surface when they reconcile their records. If they bought in November, then you can expect a lot of stuff to still be going on behind the scenes while they catch up. It's an easy catch. Company A sells $500k in loans to Company B but Company B only sees $495k in loans on their books. Then they do a little investigating and voila, instant new year's gift
I wouldn't think so. I would keep records of the time you tried to contact them and keep whatever correspondence they send. While a clerical error doesn't free you from the financial liability, it shouldn't have any effect on your payment history.