As mia stated, global transfer allows you to get a locally issued card without all of the credit history requirements. In my experience (coming to US), they much, much prefer you to get a charge card (all of which have a fee) than a credit card, since that decreases their liability to you. Having said that, after a few months, I was able to persuade them to issue me with a credit card (SPG) since I did not want to relinquish my UK plat charge card, and didn't want to pay for two lots of charge cards.
In this instance, as others have said, the IEC seems the best bet for you, and will involve you paying a fee. Of course, you can choose to do all transactions by cash, but that has limitations, e.g. for purchasing expensive items, and importantly, buying over the web (e.g. flights).
tb