Academic Deferments

Academic deferments will defer your loan principal and interest while you are attending school. If you qualify, please refer to the following link for a deferment form: Deferment Form. Complete Part 1 and then take the form to your school's registrar for certification. After completion, they should return it to the billing address for A.C.S. shown on the form.

Academic deferments are granted for periods when you are enrolled half time or more in a program seeking a degree or certificate. You cannot defer for a period for which you are not yet enrolled. For example, if you are attending a quarterly school for fall, winter and spring quarters, you can only defer in the fall for fall. Winter and spring are future quarters and you cannot be currently attending classes in the future. You must complete a deferment for each session you wish to defer. That's the bad news; the good news is you do have a six-month grace period after an academic deferment so you will have plenty of time to get the next one completed and returned to A.C.S.

Important: If you attend continuously and you have deferred your account payments, your academic deferment grace period ends in all cases six months after the day you were last enrolled. This means your regular payment is due on the first day following the last day of your academic grace period. According to the terms of your Promissory Note, payment is due even if you do not receive a bill, so make sure A.C.S. has your most current address.

Your initial grace period, the first grace period, is the only one that is nine months in length; all other grace periods are six months long. If you wish to file a deferment for which you qualify during your initial grace period, you will forfeit any part of the grace period, which is covered by your deferment. For example: If you leave school in June, your initial grace period runs from July 1 through March 31. If you attend another school starting in September and file an academic deferment for that semester, you lose the rest of your initial grace period and go right into your deferment period and post-deferment six-month grace.

Don't forget to sign your form and put exact dates in the boxes! Please don't hesitate to contact A.C.S. if you have any further questions.

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