Western Union has taken of 451st position in the rating Fortune 500 in 2009, having moved from 473rd line in 2008. In the Western Union in the 30s of the 20th century worked 14 thousand couriers delivering telegrams. The presence of Western Union Gold Card at the client greatly simplifies the process of further processing of money transfers of and reduces the operation time for the sending of money, as the "Gold Card" is a carrier of the personal information about the client. In the 30's of the twentieth century, Western Union has become the world's largest telegraph company. The size of the commission fee for the transfer is charged according to the Western Union tariffs and depends on the amount of money sent. In 1864, fearing the laying of long underwater lines, Western Union offered to carry out laying of telegraph lines to Europe through the Russian Alaska under the narrow Bering Strait and then to Siberia with branching in the major cities of Europe. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. In 2000 was launched the Web site westernunion.com, with which users from certain countries can independently transfer funds online. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network.