<prompt> Human: I posted to rcollege seeking advice about an emergency credit card till my loans kick in july 30th but I know absolutely nothing about credit cards, and a introductory credit card through my bank was suggested, Im not quite sure what that is and I feel it is important that I say that I belong to a credit union rather than traditional bank and a total cost of my books is just over 100 from amazon and such.edit what should I look for in a credit card? what does apr mean? what is a balance transfer fee? what is a good network? if i dont have a credit score does that mean i have bad credit?  <response>: In general you should look for the card with the smallest annual fee and the maximum rewards. Because you are in college and your expenses are most likely fairly limited, you shouldnt worry too much about rewards. A credit card works like this: you swipe your card, and no money is actually deducted from any of your accounts. Instead, a bank or credit union fronts you the money on credit, and then you pay for all of those transactions at the end of your billing cycle. Heres the catch: if you have spent more on the credit card than you are able to pay off at the end of the cycle, then you will be in debt. On top of that debt, the credit card company will charge interest on the debt at a fairly high rate called APR annual percentage rate. This is how people very easily get into lots of credit card debt. The card makes them feel like they can afford things which, at the end of the day or, rather, billing cycle they cannot actually pay for. But as long as you pay the credit card off in full at the end of the billing cycle, you dont have to even worry about the APR at all because you will only be paying for what you can afford.Personally, I would recommend the Discover It card. You can get approved extremely quickly with no credit and no cosigner. I was approved for a 500 credit line with no credit history and relatively low income. Good luck 