Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can become complicated. You may begin with a quick internet search, hoping it will quickly appear and you'll discover the information you desire with very little effort. Yet what actually comes up are various paid services which range from under a dollar for one number search to upwards of fifteen dollars for a service subscription.

Editing your search to specify free reverse phone lookup reveals even more pay directories advertising claims to be free. They may allow you to type in the number for free and award you with very nominal information such as the city and state, but if you need to get the useful information like a name or address you will once again be asked to pay.

Totally free reverse phone lookup is not possible at this point. Providers of this information go to great efforts and even money to assemble information such as unpublished home phone numbers, cell phone numbers, and sometimes address histories. They have no purpose to collect this information other than to deliver it to you for a minor charge.

Where you go from this point depends on how much you really want to reveal the person connected to that phone number. In the age of identity theft many people won't just pick the cheapest site and enter their credit card information. Finding the most reputable directories is just as necessary as when you buy tennis shoes or pocketbooks over the internet.

Getting the information you need isn't very hard, once you find a reputable service.

There are a growing number of competitive services all with different fees and offering different combinations of information. When you only need to identify the person registered with a strange phone number calling your home or want to determine exactly who your teenager is chatting with at all hours of the night, you may not have the time to rate different websites.

The most effective solution may be to go with a name that many of us have grown up with and use the web-based version of the yellow pages. There is a sense of security with a well known popular name that has been around for years. You can search a phone number and get very basic information here without a fee, including if the number is a cell phone or landline and a map indicating the general location of a home or business. You won't get much more than that, especially if you are researching a cell phone or a residential number that is unlisted.

Be alert at this point because there are links on these pages that will deliver more information, including names and specific addresses, for a fee. These links go to other sites, so you have left the familiarity of the white pages website so you need to verify the reputation of these services just as with any other. White pages itself is not going to deliver much information beyond a general location; you will need to search elsewhere for anything else, especially if you need to know about a cell phone or unlisted number.

The easiest way to access reverse phone lookup services for basic needs is to find a trustworthy directory with a nominal one time charge accepted with a secure payment system. If you just want a one time lookup then it is usually not worth the charge to sign up for a unlimited service. Locate one that delivers a single search for a minor fee, usually just a buck or two.

Forking over a huge fee for very limited information or being asked to secure information by delivering card numbers through email or other non-secure forms are flashing warnings of a scam.