It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a phone number or address was a matter of opening the yellow pages and searching for the name. It is often 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 development 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 coming up. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing demands to offer a very useful service to resourceful phone users.

There are two common functions for these directories.

Finding Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your ID, or you want to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name registered to the number of concern. Just by typing in the phone number you will be able to identify whoever is behind the bothersome phone calls.

People needing such services include those wanting to check up on a number frequently phoning their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no accessible directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they want to know a name listed to a landline that is unlisted. If you have a phone number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup service can assist you.

Locating Addresses

another typical function is to identify an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you find the information linked with a certain phone number most directories will give other sorts of information as well, such as the address of an landline 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 off or has not returned home long after curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly tell them addresses and names of places the child may be located.

More common situations may be searching for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's peers. 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 family.

Lookup websites can also deliver a connection to other sorts of information, such as income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint to the business or home's location.

There is a nominal price for any up to date reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal life requires accurate information it is money well spent in the end. The charge is unavoidable because this kind of information is not easy or completely free to research, compile, and save, so distributing it on demand to people like you must also come with a fee to make up for these working expenditures.

There more than likely will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely many of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many home phone numbers today. The best way to get access to these numbers is to give a nominal charge either to do a one time phone number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory long term.