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Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline F · Financial

Credit Card Debt

What the decided record shows for this issue, computed from public DOHA hearing-level decisions. Descriptive history, not a prediction.

Does credit card debt affect a security clearance?

Credit Card Debt is an issue decided under Guideline F, Financial. In the decided DOHA record it appears in 4,757 hearing-level cases, and 35% of the 4,753 decided ended with access granted (1,678 granted, 3,075 denied). The mitigating conditions judges credited most often, and example decisions either way, are below.

Basis: 4,753 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.

More questions people ask the record

Decided cases

4,757

hearing-level decisions raising this issue

Granted

35%

1,678 granted · 3,075 denied or revoked

Official mitigating conditions cited

The formal mitigating conditions the case profiles identified on this issue, in cases that were granted and in cases that were denied. Each is shown with its paragraph number and a plain name. Read what each condition says.

  • ¶ 20(d) · A good-faith effort to repay or otherwise resolve the debts

    In granted cases
    792
    In denied cases
    144

  • ¶ 20(b) · Conditions largely beyond the person's control, met responsibly

    In granted cases
    745
    In denied cases
    62

  • ¶ 20(c) · Counseling received, with clear signs the problem is being resolved

    In granted cases
    529
    In denied cases
    52

  • ¶ 20(a) · So long ago, or so infrequent, that it is unlikely to recur

    In granted cases
    186
    In denied cases
    13

  • ¶ 20(e) · A reasonable and documented basis to dispute the debt

    In granted cases
    81
    In denied cases
    16

  • ¶ 20(g) · An arrangement made with the tax authority, and kept

    In granted cases
    54
    In denied cases
    24

Circumstances credited in granted cases

The specific circumstances the judge expressly credited among the granted cases on this issue where that detail was extracted.
  • debt paid in full · credited in 21 granted cases
  • financial counseling · credited in 2 granted cases
  • payment plan with creditor · credited in 2 granted cases
  • chapter 13 bankruptcy · credited in 1 granted case
  • chapter 7 bankruptcy · credited in 1 granted case

Recent decided examples

  • ISCR Case No. 26-00256Granted2026

    The applicant, a 32-year-old security guard, was granted eligibility for access to classified information after mitigating financial concerns and refuting personal conduct allegations. He admitted to …

  • ISCR Case No. 26-00215Granted2026

    The case involves an applicant who admitted to multiple past-due credit card debts totaling approximately $28,000, primarily due to financial difficulties stemming from an 18-month unemployment period…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-01592Denied2026

    The applicant's security clearance was denied due to financial concerns under Guideline F, where he admitted to five delinquent credit card accounts totaling approximately $68,861. Although he took ov…

  • ISCR Case No. 26-00773Denied2026

    The applicant's security clearance was denied due to failure to mitigate financial concerns, primarily involving significant delinquent debts totaling approximately $48,000. The applicant admitted to …

See all 4,757 decisions on this issue

Related issues under Guideline F

How these numbers are measured

Scope: decided hearing-level cases whose per-allegation profile records this issue, matched to the same issue value the search filters use, so a count here and a filtered search always agree. A case raising several issues counts under each one. The mitigating conditions and the credited circumstances below were extracted for a subset of the record, so both are counts of cases rather than rates. Pages exist only for issues with at least 25 decided cases, and † marks any split built on fewer than 20.

Reading the statistics

  • Granted = access granted or continued; Denied = denied or revoked.
  • Grant rate = granted ÷ (granted + denied).
  • † marks figures based on fewer than 20 cases, too few to be reliable.
  • Hovering any rate shows its statistical range (a 95% confidence interval).
  • Figures are descriptive counts over decided, public DOHA ISCR decisions, never predictions or assessments of any pending case.

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