Defaulted loans off credit report, rehab or pay in full with tax offset?

[Anonymous]

I long ago defaulted on my student loans (four accounts on credit report with a remaining balance of about $3.5k). My tax refunds have been offset for about six years.

My credit score is in the neighborhood of 715 when my $6.5k in credit cards are paid down

My issue: The last of the negative marks from my defaulted student loans will fall off my credit report in four months. How do I proceed?

I will be able to pay off the $3.5k by the end of the year and I understand I have three options:

1. Pay in full in December

- I understand this is clearly the worst of all options.

2. Rehab

- Will the positives of rehabbing the loans outweight the risks and headaches of having things rise from the dead and reappear on my credit report?

3. Pay in full with tax refund offset

- I work for the family business and I handle the payroll; I can increase my federal withholding amount so that my 2015 refund will cover the balance of my loans.

I've done some digging but any discussions I've found are older and I understand that the rules of the rehab game have changed.

What would everyone else do?

Any and all input is much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

From what I know, even paying in full I believe it will show as a paid off collection account. You may not want that status.  I would check your options (the forbearance terms).  it doesn't sound like you're cash strapped so what you want is to mainly get that derogatory mark off (which you can do with the forbearance agreement or PIF).  I couldn't afford to do that so I opted Forbearance and within 45 days everything was udated with all CAs and my account current with the lender.