So instead you use a browser from a company whose goal is to control all your purchasing?
Yesterday one of my friends bought a mac. He needed a credit card before he could install vim... vim needs brew, which needs xcode, which needs the istore, which needs an appleid, which needs (well, wants) a credit card on file.
Hmm, I don't think you need a credit card on file. You can select "None" as your payment method. This should allow you to download anything that's free (they'll still ask you for a credit card if you try to download something paid, of course). You installed XCode dev tools and you're set.