It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and searching for a phone number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and searching for the name. Things have grown more complex now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.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 widespread use of caller ID on most home phones, a lot of numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup providers have responded to these changing demands to provide a very useful service to modern phone users.
There are two common uses for these directories.
Searching for Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you want to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name listed to the number of concern. Just by typing in the phone number you will have access to whoever is behind the calls of concern.
People looking for this service include those wanting to identify a number often phoning their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they want to identify a name connected to a landline that is unlisted. Anytime you have a number but aren't sure who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can assist you.
Locating Addresses
another typical purpose is to identify an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you plug into the contact information connected with a certain phone number most directories will deliver additional information as well, such as the address of the home phone or the address listed to a cell phone number.
This may not be a typical need for most people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. Such as a parent needing to track down a teenager who has run away or is still out well past curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly reveal addresses as well as names of locations the child may be at that time.
Other circumstances may be searching for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have their phone number you can get their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy parents.
Lookup websites can also give you a connection to other various types of data, including income brackets and address histories, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of the most current location.
There will be a minor fee for any relevant reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal situation requires accurate data it is worth the money in the end. The charge is unavoidable because this kind of information is not easy or completely free to research, compile, and protect, so issuing it on demand to consumers like you must also come with a charge to cover such working expenditures.
There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled it is probable a lot of the numbers would be unpublished as is the case with many landline numbers right now. The best way to get access to such numbers is to pay a minor charge either to complete a single phone number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the service long term.