Not long ago, everyone had a standard phone in their home and locating a number or address was a matter of opening the phone book and locating the name. This has become more difficult now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unlisted.

Even with the invention of caller ID on most home phones, some numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their details from coming up. Reverse phone lookup directories have responded to these changing times to offer a very valuable service to modern phone users.

There are two typical uses for these services.

Finding Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you need to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name listed to the phone number in question. Just by typing in the phone number you will be able to identify whoever is responsible for the bothersome phone calls.

People in search of this service include those who need to identify a number frequently texting their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they want to know a name connected to a home phone that may be unpublished. Whenever you have a number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup directory can help.

Locating Addresses

The other common use is to locate an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you gain access to the information associated with a particular phone number most services will deliver additional information as well, which may include the address of the landline 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 some situations. Such as a parent desperate to track down a teenager who has run away or has not returned home long after curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly reveal addresses and names of locations the teenager may be located.

More common situations may be searching for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have a phone number you can access their address and easily deliver the invite without calling or tracking down other busy people.

Lookup websites can also give you access to other various types of data, including income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint to the business or home's location.

There is a nominal price for any relevant reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal life requires certain information it is worth the money in the long run. The fee is necessary because this sort of information is not simple or free to research, collect, and save, so distributing it on demand to consumers such as you must also come with a fee to cover these working costs.

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 just like many landline numbers today. The best way to obtain access to these numbers is to put up a small charge either to do a one time number search or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the service on a regular basis.