It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a number or address simply required opening the phone book and locating their name. This has become more complicated now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.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 invention of caller ID on most landlines, a lot of numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their name from showing up. Reverse phone lookup providers have responded to these changing demands to offer a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.

There are two typical uses for lookup directories.

Searching for Names

If you are getting calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you need to identify cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can assist in finding the name listed to the number of concern. Just by entering the number you will have access to whoever is initiating the bothersome phone calls.

People needing such services include those wanting to identify a number constantly calling their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use this when they need to find a name listed to a landline that may be unlisted. Whenever you have a number but aren't sure who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can deliver the information.

Locating Addresses

another typical use is to find an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you plug into the information linked with a certain phone number most directories will give additional information as well, which includes the address of the landline 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 quite a few situations. For instance, consider a parent needing to track down a teenager who has run away or is still out long after curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly tell them addresses as well as names of places the teenager may be located.

Other circumstances may be looking for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have a phone number you can get their address and mail out the invitation without calling or tracking down other busy parents.

These services can also give you a connection to other various types of data, such as income brackets or previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an rough pinpoint of where the home or business is located.

There will be a nominal price for any legitimate reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal life demands certain information it is more than worth the payoff in the end. The charge is unavoidable because this sort of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and protect, so distributing it immediately to consumers like you must also include a charge to account for such working 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 unlisted as is the case with many home phone numbers today. The only way to obtain access to these phone numbers is to give a minor fee either to do a single number search or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the directory long term.