Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and finding a number or address simply required opening the white pages and finding their name. Things have grown more complicated 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, a lot of numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their details from showing up. Reverse phone lookup services have stepped up to these changing demands to offer a very useful service to modern phone users.
There are two typical uses for lookup services.
Finding 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 directories can assist in finding the name registered to the number in question. Just by typing in the number you will have access to the person who is behind the phone calls in question.
People needing this service include those who need to identify a number often phoning their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to identify a name connected to a landline that is unpublished. Anytime you have a phone number but don't know who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup website can assist you.
Finding Addresses
another common purpose is to identify an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you gain access to the information connected with a particular phone number most services will deliver additional data as well, which includes the address of an landline or the address connected to a cell phone number.
This may not be a typical need for most people, but it does have its benefits in quite a few situations. For instance, consider a parent desperate to find a teenager who has run away or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly uncover addresses and names of places the child may be at that time.
Other circumstances may be looking for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have the phone number you can get their address and easily deliver the invite without calling and tracking down other busy parents.
Lookup directories can also deliver access to other kinds of information, such as income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint to the business or home's location.
There is a nominal price for any legitimate reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal situation demands certain information it is money well spent in the long run. The fee is necessary because this sort of information is not easy or free to research, pull together, and save, so dispensing it immediately to people like you must also include a charge to account for these serviceable expenditures.
There probably will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if there were most likely many of the numbers would be unpublished just like many landline numbers right now. The best way to obtain access to these phone numbers is to pay a nominal fee either to do a single number lookup or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the directory long term.