Defaulting on a loan

If you are a full time student at an accredited school, you should be qualified for In-School Deferment. From the American Student Assistance: In-School Deferment Postponement for when you are enrolled at an accredited school. If you are a new borrower as of July 1, 1993, you must be enrolled at least half time. Definitions of half-time enrollment vary by school—it’s important to know how your school defines this. If you are a pre-July 1, 1993 borrower, you may need to be enrolled full time to be eligible for this deferment. Parent PLUS borrowers have always been able to use this deferment based on their own enrollment in an eligible school. However, borrowers of Parent PLUS loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2008, can use this deferment based on the enrollment of the student benefitting from the loan. The benefitting student must be enrolled at least half time. How Long Does It Last? There is no maximum amount of time for this deferment as long as you meet the criteria. http://www.asa.org/loan-help/defer/deferment/ Please contact someone at ASA - they should be able to help you.

To the best of my knowledge, the limitation on the total number of months a student loan may be deferred only applies to deferments due to unemployment or economic hardship. I don't believe there is any such limitation on deferments due to being in school.

That stuff about deferments while in school applies to US govt loans. If these are private loans you have no such rights (unless they were in your loan contract). You would have to try to work it out with the lender yourself.

This was a loan from a bank? Did you try to work out a payment plan? I have no idea about how British credit reports or credit reporting law works, but I have no doubt that they can share default data across borders - not sure if they actually do that, though, but my gut feeling is that a default could come back to haunt you. As for your political career - again, I don't know about in the UK, but in the US it could definitely hurt you. You would have trouble getting a security clearance or, if you are a lawyer, admitted to the bar. Employers also commonly check credit reports now. As for politics, several DC council members have gotten bad publicity for defaulted debt recently ... But this being in DC government nobody really cared all that much!

(They also might have some leverage to help negotiate a different repayment schedule.)

c) Despite not having any intention of going back to the US, what if I get a job and my company sends me there, will this prevent me from getting a visa or give me other complications? Do your own research on this, IANAL, etc... But I've heard repeatedly that credit doesn't even transfer between the US and Canada. Both from people online, and off. I have friends with dual citizenship, and I also heard it in relation to getting your first apartment up there if you wanted to move. I've also seen the same answer about the US from the UK, or vice versa, repeatedly. Unless some student loans are some magic special case, I really really doubt this is true. I'd be really wary about this creating some weird BS if I ever visited the US though, simply because student loans are this massive excempt from all the rules unstoppable force here.