Do Not Lie (see a trend forming here)! You can join with bad credit. You may not immediately get a clearance, but if you show that you are working towards improving your credit (no late payments and trying to resolve old debt) you can eventually be given a clearance. Maybe not a TS, but there are a lot of Secret clearance MOSs out there. I recommend using a credit repair service if you have a lot of old debt (3-7 years old), as they may be able to contact and even clear some of that old stuff off of your credit report. I used Lexington Law, in under 2 years I saw my creit score go from 575ish to damn near 700. This was a few years ago though, and I already had my clearance.