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@The_Seldom_Killer
When I moved to Canada years ago, the thing that I learnt was it wasn't having a poor or bad credit rating but that I simply didn't exist on any credit rating systems. This was what was stopping me from being able to sort phone, utilities and even a functional bank account.
The piece of advice that I got was to go into a department store and get a store card. Buy something with that card and in the first month just pay the minimum balance so that you actually incur interest. After that, it's fine to pay of the remainder of the balance plus the interest. In many places you can make those payments with cash in store. It was the act of incurring and paying interest off that was supposed to get me onto the credit rating systems rather than just being given a line of credit by whichever financial organisation worked in conjunction with the department store.
The short version is that after the best part of a year with a deposit only account and having to pay for everything in cash, I was suddenly eligible for a chip and pin card and phone companies etc switched from umming and ahhing about not being able to offer a service to being very "helpful" in trying to sell me whatever they could.
So if you move quite quickly you can go from being a non-entity to being able to access basic services unhindered. The only caveat here is that interest on store cards can clock in at anywhere up to 40% APR so don't go buck wild. But if you buy a piece of clothing or some other household essential, you then get to buy your basic credit rating for less than $5. If you shop around then you could get an introductory offer that counter-acts that.
Don't forget that a lot of US banks charge for basic account services. It's really annoying for British people because we're used to our free system. Some places, such as supermarkets, will offer free or mostly free bank accounts as part of a consumer loyalty programme. You get free service, they get to track your shopping habits and subject you to targeted marketing.