It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and finding a phone number or address was a matter of opening the white pages and locating the name. Things have grown more complex now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.

Even with the invention of caller ID on most landlines, some numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their name from coming up. Reverse phone lookup providers have responded to these changing times to provide a very valuable service to modern phone users.

There are two typical uses for these services.

Locating 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 services can help you find out the name registered to the number of concern. Just by entering the number you will have access to whoever is responsible for the bothersome phone calls.

People looking for this service include those wanting to identify a number frequently calling their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they need to find a name registered to a landline that is unpublished. Whenever you have a phone number but are uncertain who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup directory can help.

Locating Addresses

another typical use is to identify an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the information connected with a certain phone number most services will deliver other sorts of data as well, which includes the address of the landline or the address associated with a cell phone number.

This may not be a typical need for some people, but it does have its benefits in some situations. For example, take a parent in a rush to locate a teenager who has run off or is still out well past curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly tell them addresses and names of places the teenager may be at that time.

Other circumstances may be searching for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have a phone number you can get their address and easily deliver the invite without calling or tracking down other busy people.

Lookup websites can also give you access to other kinds of information, such as income brackets and previous addresses, and one site even gives a map with an estimated pinpoint of the most current location.

There is a small charge for any legitimate reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life requires particular data it is more than worth the payoff in the long run. The fee is required because this variety of information is not easy or free to research, pull together, and save, so distributing it on demand to consumers such as you must also include a charge to cover such working costs.

There more than likely will never be a phone book for cell phone numbers, and even if there were most likely a lot of the numbers would be unlisted just like many landline numbers right now. The only way to gain 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 be using the service long term.