MANILA, Philippines — It was 10:33 p.m. when Dulce Amor Bandoy's cell phone beeped with her favorite kind of message.

"You have received 1,321.00 of G-Cash," read the text on her phone's glowing screen.

That meant her uncle in London had just deposited 1,321 Philippine pesos — about $26 — into her Globe Telecom cell phone account, which Bandoy uses like a bank. "My phone is now my wallet," said Bandoy, 29.

The cell phone-based system that conveys cash between Bandoy and her uncle has the potential to revolutionize the way hundreds of billions of dollars are moved around the world, according to experts who study global cash flows.

Cash that relatives working abroad send home is not only vital support for millions of families but a cornerstone of national economies from Mexico to Lesotho. The World Bank estimates that global remittances last year topped a quarter of a trillion dollars, with $13 billion flowing into the Philippines alone.

But traditional methods of moving money in small, personal amounts can be slow and costly. Western Union, the world's largest money-transfer business, would charge $22 in fees on a $26 transfer from London to Manila. Banks also demand substantial fees and often take two or three days to complete a transfer.

With cell phone use booming across the developing world, from the open deserts of Africa to Bandoy's densely populated neighborhood in sultry Manila, handsets that cost as little as $30 are enabling struggling nations to leapfrog past the need for land-line phones and ATMs.

The money transfer to the four-inch gold Nokia in Bandoy's hip pocket is a glimpse of the future, said Dilip Ratha, an economist and remittance expert with the World Bank in Washington. "I really think this is the way forward," he said. "In three years I would expect to see this all over the world."

Eugene Bandoy, 50, is a Filipino architect who lives in London and helps other expatriates buy property back home. When potential buyers want to take a look at condominiums or houses in the Philippines, his niece shows them around. He sends her cash to cover her expenses. But that can be frustrating and expensive, because the fees for wiring small sums can nearly equal the amount being sent.

So in November, when Bandoy heard at a Filipino community event that he could send up to $200 through his cell phone for as little as $7, he eagerly signed up.

"It's not just cheaper for me," he said, wearing a whimsical tie covered with drawings of Volkswagen bugs and a white cap spun from Scottish cashmere. "It's more convenient for Dulce — she can pick up the money at a shopping mall late at night long after banks are closed." She could also use any of 1,500 other locations, including department stores and licensed pawnshops.

Last month, Bandoy needed his niece to go to Quezon City, just outside Manila, to show a condominium to a woman who works in London but was home on vacation and interested in buying. But Dulce, like so many people struggling to get by in this country of almost 90 million people, said she didn't have the $1 for a bus or train ride to meet the client.

She called her uncle and told him, "I need money or I can't meet her."

So on the afternoon of Sept. 11, Bandoy walked up the steps to a second-floor office in a stately office building in Kensington, central London. There, Gen Ashley was waiting in the one-room office of her remittance company, Twilight Express.

Ashley has thousands of customers, who among them send about $2 million a month home to the Philippines. Recently, she said, several hundred of them have begun asking her to send money through the two giant Philippine phone companies, SMART and Globe Telecom.

"It is definitely growing," she said.

In recent years, growing numbers of people in the Philippines, as well as in countries as diverse as Japan and Zambia, have begun using new features on their mobile phones to pay bills, buy goods and transfer cash to relatives in the same country.

But international money transfers by this method have been slower to flourish, in part because regulators are trying to assure this new channel won't be used to launder money. Tightening the monitoring of international cash flows has become a prime goal of U.S. authorities who are trying to prevent terrorist attacks.

The Philippines, noted for embracing cell phone innovations and heavily reliant on remittances, has plowed ahead on its own. For now, however, phone companies are limiting international transfers to relatively small amounts, such as $200.

Globe Telecom officials said Filipino workers in 17 countries, including the United States, can now use their phones to send money home. In the U.S., they said, the service recently linked up with remittance centers in California, Nevada and Texas.

OLD HABITS HARD TO BREAK IN HAWAI'I

Hawai'i's Filipino residents who remit money to their home country mostly use traditional methods for transmitting money, though sending funds to cell phone accounts in the Philippines is slowly catching on.

Younger immigrants sending money to family sometimes use the system, especially if recipients live in urban areas where using cell phones for financial services is more readily accepted, Honolulu money transmitters said.

"If people really understood the product they would use this," said Anna Matsui, owner of Remit PI on Dillingham Boulevard. She said most people still pay more to have the money deposited in bank accounts or delivered to homes.

Mark Manuel of Central Remit on North King Street said the service offered by Philippines telephone companies SMART and Globe Telecom has been available locally for about a year or so and has mostly been used by technologically savvy folks. That description doesn't extend to many of the older Filipino immigrants who still send money back home.

"It's geared toward the younger generation," Manuel said. He said people living in the provinces aren't as likely to subscribe to the service.

Money transfers to the Philippines start at $10 at UFC Travel in Waipahu. Owner Virgel Uy said he is considering adding the SMART transfer service.

— Advertiser Staff