Well, it was nice while it lasted. You got the money for your tuition, finished that last semester, and now you have graduated, diploma in hand. However, in the not so distant future, the glow will wear off, and you'll be facing the repayment of all those loans. While you have managed to allow your payment and credit history to suffer while you've been focused on your studies, those bad credit repayment demands on those loans won't go away. First year college students usually acquire student loans without too much trouble. It's the third and fourth year students who are often plagued by bad credit, and then must resort to finding bad credit student loans.

Such loans are extremely difficult to find and obtain, and come with astronomical interest rates. If you've defaulted on any loan, you may be faced with increased interest penalties, or in some cases, immediate demand of repayment. Defaulting on a loan means that you haven't complied with repayment terms or if you've gone way past due payment dates. Defaulting on a loan, especially a bad credit student loan, comes with severe repercussions.

The first thing you may face is a letter requesting the immediate repayment of the loan, and you will lose your option of making payments in installments, or even deferred payments. Finding student financial aid in these circumstances will be extremely difficult, especially if you're seeking any Federal funding such as a Perkins Loan. In addition, your account may be turned over to a collection agency and you will more than likely have to pay additional fees as well as interest charges, late fees, collection costs and even, if you're really bad, court costs.

That's just the beginning. If you don't pay a bad student credit loan, or any loan for that matter, your account may be referred to a national credit bureau and your credit rating can be damaged for years to come. Try buying a car, furniture or obtaining a home improvement loan with that hanging over your head. You may even have difficulty renting an apartment, as landlords run credit checks on prospective tenants and if they find that you are consistently late in making payments or if you've defaulted on any debt, they may deny you. Having bad credit can even affect future employment, so all that hard work studying may likely be useless if you don't take care to repay your student loan debts on time.

In severe cases, the IRS may garner any future income tax refunds for repayment of loans, so avoid missing payments or defaulting on any loan if at all possible. Before you ask for a student loan, think about the future and repayment. If possible, start a separate savings account and start tucking money away in an effort to get a jump on the repayment of any student loan, good credit or bad, so that you can avoid the disaster that has met thousands of graduating students. Don't let that college education go down the drain. Think ahead, play it smart and put those brains to some good use. Plan ahead when it comes time to find, and repay, any type of student loans.