Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and searching for a number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and finding the name. Things have grown more complex now that cell phones are widely used 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, many numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their details from coming up. Reverse phone lookup services have stepped up to these changing times to offer a very timely service to modern phone users.

There are two typical functions for these services.

Searching for Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your ID, or you need to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name registered to the phone number in question. Just by entering the phone number you will have access to the person who is initiating the phone calls in question.

People looking for such services include those who need to check up on a number frequently texting their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to find a name listed to a landline that is unlisted. Whenever you have a phone number but are uncertain who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can assist you.

Finding Addresses

another typical purpose is to identify an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the information linked with a specific phone number most directories will deliver other sorts of information as well, such as the address of an home phone or an address connected to a cell phone number.

This may not be a typical need for some 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 off or has not returned home long after curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of locations the teenager may be at that time.

More common situations may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have a phone number you can find their address and mail out the invitation without calling or tracking down other busy family.

Lookup websites can also deliver access to other sorts of data, including income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint of where the home or business is located.

There will be a nominal price for any legitimate reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal life requires particular information it is worth the money in the long run. The fee is necessary because this variety of information is not easy or free to research, pull together, and store, so distributing it on demand to consumers like you must also come with a charge to cover such serviceable expenditures.

There likely will never be a public directory for cellular numbers, and even if there were most likely a lot of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many home phone numbers right now. The only way to gain access to these numbers is to pay a minor fee either to do a single phone number lookup or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the service long term.