It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and finding a phone number or address simply required opening the phone book and finding the name. This has become more difficult now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unlisted.
Even with the invention of caller ID on most home phones, a lot of numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their details from showing up. Reverse phone lookup directories have stepped up to these changing demands to offer a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.
There are two typical uses for these directories.
Finding Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you need to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the phone number of concern. Just by typing in the phone number you will be able to identify whoever is behind those calls of concern.
People in search of such services include those wanting to check up on a number constantly calling their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Others may use lookup directories when they want to find a name listed to a landline that may be unpublished. If you have a number but don't know who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can deliver the information.
Searching for Addresses
another common purpose is to find an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the contact information linked with a certain number most directories will deliver other sorts of data as well, such as the address of the home phone or the address connected to a cell phone number.
This may not be an everyday need for some people, but it does have its benefits 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 come up with numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of places the teenager may be at that time.
More common situations may be searching for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have the phone number you can get their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy people.
These services can also deliver access to other kinds of information, including income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of where the home or business is located.
There will be a nominal price for any relevant reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life demands certain information it is worth the money in the end. The fee is required because this sort of information is not easy or completely free to research, compile, and store, so issuing it as needed to consumers such as you must also include a fee to cover these working expenditures.
There probably 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 today. The best way to obtain access to these numbers is to pay a nominal charge either to complete a single number search or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the directory on a regular basis.