Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can become confusing. You may begin with a simple internet search, hoping it will automatically pop up and you'll have the information you need with very little work. Yet what actually appears is a long list of paid websites which range from under a dollar for one number search to over fifteen dollars for a service subscription.

Editing your search to indicate free reverse phone lookup reveals even more pay sites sneaking in claims that they are completely free. They may allow you to type in the number for free and give very basic information such as the city or state, but in order to obtain the useful information like a name or address you will once again be asked to hand over a fee.

Totally free reverse phone lookup is not possible at this point. Providers of this information go to great measures and even money to assemble information including unpublished residential numbers, cell phone numbers, and even address histories. They have no purpose to collect this information other than to deliver it to buyers for a small charge.

Where you go from this point depends on how much you really desire to identify the name connected to that phone number. In the age of identity fraud many people won't just pull up the cheapest site and enter their credit card information. Finding the most reputable directories is just as crucial as when you buy tennis shoes or handbags over the internet.

Retrieving the information you desire isn't very hard, once you locate a reputable source.

There are a growing number of competing websites all offering different prices and delivering different combinations of information. When you only want to know the name connected to a unidentified phone number calling your home or wish to know exactly who your teenager is chatting with at all hours of the night, you may not have the patience to compare different websites.

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 yellow pages. There is a sense of security with a common popular name that has been around for years. You can look up a phone number and get very basic information here free of charge, including if the number is a cell phone or residential line and a map indicating the general location if it is a home or business. You won't get much more than that, especially if you are looking up a cell phone or a landline that is unpublished.

Be careful at this point because there are links from these pages that offer more detailed information, such as registered names and specific addresses, for a charge. These links lead to other sites, so you no longer necessarily have the familiarity of the yellow pages website so you must check the reputation of these services just like any other. White pages itself is not going to reveal much information other than a general location; you will need to look elsewhere for more, especially if you want to know about a cell phone or unpublished number.

The most effective way to find reverse phone lookup directories for basic information is to go to a reputable database with a nominal one time fee collected with a secure payment system. If you only need a one time number search then it is obviously not worth the fee to sign up for a more detailed directory. Locate one that delivers a single lookup for a low price, often just a buck or two.

Forking over a huge charge for very limited information or being asked to secure information by sending personal information by email or other non-secure methods are obvious warnings of a scam.