It used to be that everyone had a standard phone in their home and finding a phone number or address simply required opening the phone book and locating their name. It is often 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 widespread use of caller ID on most landlines, some numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup directories have stepped up to these changing demands to provide a very timely service to modern phone users.
There are two typical functions for lookup services.
Searching for Names
If you are getting calls from someone and only a number shows on your caller ID, or you want to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can help you find out the name registered to the phone number of concern. Just by entering the number you will be able to identify the person who is initiating those phone calls in question.
People in search of lookup directories include those wanting to identify a number often texting their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no accessible directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use lookup directories when they need to find a name registered to a landline that may be unlisted. Anytime you have a phone number but aren't sure who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup website can assist you.
Locating Addresses
another typical purpose 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 particular phone number most directories will give other sorts of information as well, which may include the address of an home phone 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 quite a few situations. Such as a parent needing to find a teenager who has run off or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of locations the child may be at that time.
More common circumstances may be searching for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have their phone number you can access their address and easily deliver the invite without calling or tracking down other busy parents.
Lookup websites can also deliver a connection to other various types of information, such as income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint of the most current location.
There is a nominal price for any relevant reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal situation requires accurate information it is money well spent in the end. The charge is required because this variety of information is not easy or completely free to research, compile, and protect, so distributing it immediately to people like you must also include a fee to account for these operational costs.
There likely will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if there were it is probable the majority of the numbers would be unpublished just like many home phone numbers today. The only way to get access to these phone numbers is to put up a small fee either to complete a single number search or to join a lookup service if you will be using the service on a regular basis.