With the economy the way it is now, millions of college graduates from around the country are having a more and more difficult time when attempting to repay their student loans. Many students have actually completely forgone paying back their student loan debt and thus have allowed their loans to fall into default. Default student loans are never a good thing, and these students are going to suffer a variety of negative consequences as a result of letting their debt go into default-including a weakened credit score, increased penalties and fees, as well as the inability to take out more student loans.If you’re a college graduate with a significant amount of college loan debt then you obviously don’t want this to happen to you, and the good news is that you have an option that should be available to you that can postpone when you have to make your repayments so that you can prevent your loans from falling into default. This option involves placing your student loans into deferment so that you don’t have to make payments for a specific predetermined time period-usually between six and twelve months. Once you place your loans into deferment your accounts will still stay current and you will see no negative effects of not making your repayments during this time.You typically have to request a deferment from your lender and qualify for one of the preset reasons that your lender may provide you that can allow the granting of the deferment, and it is important to get a grip on these before you apply to avoid any difficulties. Most lenders will be able to provide you with a deferment if you are going back to school, if you are unemployed, or you are facing a serious health problem. There may be more situations that warrant an approval and this will of course depend on your own lender. A deferment can easily provide you with the ability to delay having to make your repayments for a certain amount of time so it is highly recommended that you think about utilizing this option if don’t want you student loans to fall into default.If your education loans do fall into default then there is a good chance that your student loan company could completely revoke all of your deferment time, and you will therefore not be able to utilize it regardless of your ability to make future payments. Because of this it is always wise to take the time out and plan to use your deferments when you really need them, as they can save the hassle of having to worry about going into default before you actually have to.