Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can become confusing. You may start out with a simple internet search, hoping it will immediately appear and you'll find the information you require with very little effort. Yet what actually appears are various paid websites which vary from under a dollar for one lookup to over fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.

Editing your search to specify free reverse phone lookup reveals additional pay services hiding behind claims to be free. They sometimes allow you to enter the number for free and deliver very basic information such as the city and state, but if you need to see the useful details like a name or address you will once again be asked to hand over a fee.

Totally free reverse phone lookup does not exist. Providers of this data put out great efforts and even money to collect information including unlisted residential numbers, cellular numbers, and even address histories. These businesses have no use for this information other than to deliver it to consumers for a nominal fee.

how you proceed from this point depends on how much you really desire to reveal the person connected to that phone number. In the age of identity theft most people won't just pull up the cheapest site and hand over their credit card information. Finding the most trustworthy directories is just as important as when you purchase clothing or pocketbooks over the internet.

Finding the information you need isn't very hard, once you find a reputable source.

There are many competitive services all with different fees and delivering different combinations of information. When you only need to identify the name registered with a strange number calling your home or want to identify exactly who your child is chatting with in the middle of the night, you may not have the patience to compare different websites.

The easiest solution may be to go with a brand that many people have grown up with and use the web-based version of the white pages. There is a sense of legitimacy when you use a common household name that has been used for years. You can search a phone number and get the most basic information here without a fee, including if 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 receive 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 will be links from these pages that will deliver additional information, like names and residential addresses, for a fee. These links go to different sites, so you have left the security of the white pages website so you need to check the legitimacy of these services just as you would with any other. Yellow pages itself is not going to give you much information beyond a general location; you will have to search elsewhere for more, especially if you want to know about a cell phone or unlisted number.

The most effective way to find reverse phone lookup websites for basic needs is to go to a reputable directory with a nominal one time fee accepted through a secure payment system. If you only need a one time number search then it is probably not worth the charge to sign up for a more detailed directory. Find one that provides a one time lookup for a low fee, often just a dollar or two.

Forking over a large charge for small amounts of information or being asked to secure information by sending personal information through email or other non-secure forms are flashing signals of a scam.