Not long ago, everyone had a standard phone in their home and finding a number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and searching for their name. It is often 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 unlisted.
Even with the invention of caller ID on most landlines, some numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their name from showing up. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing demands to offer a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.
There are two typical functions for lookup services.
Searching for Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number shows 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 phone number of concern. Just by typing in the number you will have access to whoever is behind the phone calls in question.
People looking for lookup directories include those wanting to identify a number constantly calling their spouse or teenager'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 Other people may use lookup directories when they want to know a name registered to a home phone that may be unpublished. Anytime you have a phone number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup service can assist you.
Finding Addresses
another common use is to find 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 directories will deliver additional information as well, which may include the address of an landline or the address associated with 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. Such as a parent needing to locate a teenager who has run away or is still out long after curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly reveal addresses and names of locations the teenager may be located.
Other circumstances may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have a phone number you can access their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy family.
Lookup websites can also give you access to other sorts of information, including income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint to the business or home's location.
There will be a small charge for any up to date reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal life demands certain information it is money well spent in the end. The fee is necessary because this variety of information is not easy or completely free to research, pull together, and protect, so distributing it on demand to others like you must also include a charge to make up for these operational expenditures.
There more than likely will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely many of the numbers would be unpublished as is the case with many home phone numbers right now. The best way to obtain access to these numbers is to put up a minor fee either to complete a single phone number search or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the directory on a regular basis.