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There’s no shortage of outfits out there enticing consumers with promises of "free" credit reports.

From a strict entertainment standpoint, it’s hard to beat the company that promotes itself with catchy jingles sung by losers living in their wife’s parents’ basement, or performing in pirate garb at a themed franchise restaurant.

Those ads, whatever the virtues of that particular company’s promise of free credit scores, are at least mildly amusing. The one I spotted on TV a couple of weeks ago would better fit into the category of "ominous."

It began with the litany of the humiliation that awaits the unfortunate soul without an up-to-date credit score committed to memory: the end of the American dream of owning a home, a car, a flat-screen television.

Then, from a place deep within the recesses of my (decidedly non-flat screen) television, a God-like voice thundered, POOR CREDIT CAN KEEP YOU FROM GETTING A JOB.

That got my attention.

But in case it hadn’t, God — or an actor doing a pretty good imitation — repeated the warning just for good measure.

YOU WON’T GET A JOB.

Really?

"It’s a bit of a scare tactic, but there’s a bit of truth to it," said Tory Johnson, the chief executive of Women for Hire. She daylights as the career advice expert on Good Morning America.

It may seem cruel, and it may seem incongruous — "You can’t get a job because of credit and you can’t pay off your credit cards because you don’t have a job," says Johnson — but employers, in fact, can use a credit score to deny employment.

Companies justify the practice by saying an indebted employee may be tempted to purloin from company accounts. Opponents say that’s unfair.

But Johnson says credit checks are pretty much standard operating procedure, especially among large corporations.

Permission for a potential employer to delve into an applicant’s credit history, Johnson said, can be found in the application’s fine print, under the section on background checks.

A criminal record, or lack thereof, is just the start, Johnson warns. Because once employers get the go-ahead, they can tap into credit histories as well.

The catch, according to Federal Trade Commission spokesman Frank Dorman, is the federal requirement stipulating that employers need prior approval before plumbing an applicant’s credit report cash advance now.

A company "must notify the individual (applicant) in writing — in a document consisting solely of this notice — that a report may be used," Dorman responded in an e-mail.

Moreover, he added, an employer that uses the content of the credit report for "adverse action" — the government’s way of saying you didn’t get the job — must provide the applicant with documentation.

Although she can’t provide specific numbers, Johnson says employers often fall down in that regard.

In many cases, applicants with a low credit score never learn of the consequences directly. They are simply informed, without explanation, that they are being passed over for a job.

"If that has happened to you and you wonder why, then you shouldn’t wonder," said Johnson. "You have to pay attention" to your credit score.

Applicants who don’t measure up credit-wise, Johnson suggests, should embrace the best-defense-is-a-good-offense strategy. The moment an employer mentions the background check, she said, is a signal to come clean.

Johnson cautions against going into a lot of detail about the maladies that resulted in overdue medical bills or the personal circumstances that led to a defaulted (employers don’t need to know "how that jerk divorced me," she says) mortgage.

"Take the opportunity to offer a brief explanation," she advises, along with a pointed assurance that poor credit will in no way impede your ability to excel at work. "If the employer is honest," said Johnson, "he will appreciate the heads up." Johnson says bad credit won’t necessarily doom the chances of a job-hunter.

But in an applicant pool swelled by the economy, it could well be the factor that results in one person’s getting a job over another. The bottom line: "If you’re looking for a job, you can expect an employer is going to get (your credit report). So you should know what’s on there."

That’s not the voice of God speaking.

It’s Tory Johnson.

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