Your credit history is a record of how you've handled borrowing and repayment in the past. It includes information on your credit accounts, late payments, collection actions, and bankruptcies. Lenders use this information to assess your riskiness as a borrower and to set the terms of any loans they extend to you. While it's important to have a good credit history, you may be wondering how long it will follow you and how to get a personal loan with no credit history at all. The answer depends on the type of information in your credit history. Negative information, such as late payments and collections, can stay on your credit report for up to seven years.