In 1860 the U.S. Congress arranged among the telegraph companies a competition to create a national line. The winner was Western Union. As a result of 2011, net income of Western Union has increased by 28% to $ 1.165 billion, the company reported. Money transfer is a matter of minutes, at any distance. To obtain the Golden card can any client of Western Union, committing money transfers on this system more than 1 time per year. Getting the card is issued at the time of making of the next transfer. In 1914 Western Union engineers invented the first payment card - a prototype of the modern credit card. Western Union incomes for 2007 have made $4,9 billion US dollars, and the quantity of transactions has made 572 million. In October 1871 the company Western Union began to provide money transfer services, drawing on its own extensive telegraph network. Western Union made so that the time in all of American civil services was the same. Number of active holders of "Golden Card" of Western Union amounted to 9.5 million people worldwide.