Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and finding the name. This has become more difficult 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 development of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their details from coming up. Reverse phone lookup directories have stepped up to these changing demands to provide a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.

There are two common functions for lookup services.

Locating Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your ID, or you need to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the phone number in question. Just by entering the phone number you will have access to whoever is responsible for those calls of concern.

People needing this service include those who need to check up on a number often calling their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they want to know a name connected to a landline that is unpublished. If you have a phone number but don't know who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can deliver the information.

Finding Addresses

The other typical purpose is to locate an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the contact information associated with a certain phone number most directories will deliver other sorts of data as well, such as the address of the home phone 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. For instance, consider a parent desperate to locate a teenager who has run off 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 reveal addresses as well as names of locations the child may be at that time.

More common situations may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have their phone number you can access their address and mail out the invitation without calling or tracking down other busy people.

These services can also deliver a connection to other kinds of information, like income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of where the home or business is located.

There will be a nominal price for any relevant reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal situation demands accurate information it is worth the money in the end. The fee is necessary because this sort of information is not easy or free to research, pull together, and save, so distributing it immediately to others like you must also come with a fee to cover these working costs.

There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled it is probable the majority of the numbers would be unpublished as is the case with many landline numbers today. The only way to get access to these phone numbers is to pay a small charge either to complete a one time phone number lookup or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the service on a regular basis.