It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and searching for a phone number or address was a matter of opening the yellow pages and finding the name. This has become more difficult now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

Even with the invention of caller ID on most landlines, many numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup providers have responded to these changing times to provide a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.

There are two common functions for these services.

Searching for Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you need to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can assist in finding the name listed to the number of concern. Just by entering the number you will be able to identify whoever is initiating those phone calls in question.

People needing lookup directories include those wanting to identify a number often calling their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they need to find a name listed to a landline that is unlisted. Anytime you have a number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup directory can assist you.

Locating Addresses

another typical function is to find an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the contact information connected with a particular number most services will give other sorts of information as well, such as the address of an home phone or the address connected to a cell phone number.

This may not be a common need for some people, but it does have its uses in quite a few situations. For example, take a parent desperate to find a teenager who has run away or is still out long after curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly tell them addresses and names of places the child may be at that time.

More common circumstances may be searching for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have a phone number you can access their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy family.

These services can also give you access to other sorts of data, including income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint of the most current location.

There is a minor fee for any relevant reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal life demands certain data it is money well spent in the end. The fee is required because this kind of information is not easy or free to research, collect, and store, so issuing it on demand to others like you must also include a fee to cover such serviceable expenditures.

There probably will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if there were it is probable the majority of the numbers would be unpublished as is the case with many home phone numbers right now. The only way to gain access to these numbers is to give a minor charge either to do a single phone number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will be using the service long term.