Not long ago, everyone had a standard phone in their home and finding a phone number or address simply required opening the white pages and locating the name. This has become 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now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.
Even with the development of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their name from showing up. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing times to provide a very useful service to resourceful phone users.
There are two common functions for these services.
Searching for Names
If you are getting calls from someone and only a number shows on your ID, or you need to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name registered to the phone number of concern. Just by typing in the phone number you will have access to the person who is behind the calls of concern.
People looking for lookup directories include those who need to check up on a number frequently calling their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they want to identify a name registered to a landline that may be unpublished. Whenever you have a phone number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup service can help.
Searching for Addresses
The other typical purpose is to find an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the information associated with a particular phone number most services will deliver additional information as well, which may include the address of the home phone or the address listed to a cell phone number.
This may not be a typical need for some people, but it does have its uses in some situations. For example, take a parent desperate to locate a teenager who has run off or is still out well past curfew. If they can get access to numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly reveal addresses as well as names of places the teenager may be at that time.
More common circumstances may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have the phone number you can find their address and mail out the invitation without calling or tracking down other busy family.
Lookup websites can also deliver a connection to other various types of data, including income brackets or 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 relevant reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life demands accurate information it is money well spent in the long run. The charge is necessary because this kind of information is not simple or completely free to research, pull together, and protect, so dispensing it as needed to consumers like you must also include a fee to account for such serviceable expenditures.
There probably will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if they were compiled it is probable many of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many landline numbers today. The only way to gain access to such phone numbers is to pay a nominal fee either to complete a one time phone number lookup or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the directory on a regular basis.