Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can become confusing. You may start out with a quick Google search, believing it will immediately pop up and you'll discover the information you require with very little work. Yet what actually comes up are various paid directories which range from less than a buck for one number search to upwards of fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.
Changing your search to specify free reverse phone lookup reveals even more pay services sneaking in claims to be free. They may allow you to type in the number free of charge and award you with very useless information such as the city and state, but if you need to obtain the more substantial details like a name or address you will once again be asked to pay.
Absolutely free reverse phone lookup does not exist. Providers of this data put out great measures and even money to collect information like unpublished landline numbers, cellular numbers, and even address histories. They have no purpose to collect this information other than to pass it on to consumers for a small fee.
Where you go from here depends on how badly you really desire to reveal the name registered to that phone number. In the age of identity theft many people won't just access the first site they find and enter their credit card information. Finding the most trustworthy sites is just as important as when you buy clothing or handbags over the internet.
Retrieving the information you want isn't very difficult, 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 simply need to identify the person connected to a particular phone number calling your home or want to determine exactly who your teenager is chatting with in the middle of the night, you may not have the patience to compare different services.
The easiest answer may be to go with a brand that many of us have grown up with and use the online version of the white pages. There is a sense of security when you use a well known popular name that has been used for years. You can search a phone number and get very basic information here free of charge, including whether the number is a cell phone or landline and a map indicating the general location if it is a home or business. You won't find much beyond that, especially if you are looking up a cell phone or a residential number that is unpublished.
Be careful at this point because there will be links on these pages that will deliver more detailed information, like registered names and residential addresses, for a fee. These links go to different sites, so you no longer necessarily have the familiarity of the white pages website so you need to check the legitimacy of these services just as you would with any other. White pages itself is not going to give you much information other than 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 best way to access reverse phone lookup services for basic needs is to go to a trustworthy database with a small one time fee collected with a secure payment system. If you just want a one time lookup then it is obviously not worth the money to sign up for a unlimited service. Look for one that delivers a single lookup for a minor charge, often just a dollar or two.
Forking over a large fee for very limited information or being asked to secure information by sending card numbers through email or other non-secure forms are clear signs of a scam.