Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and locating a number or address was a matter of opening the phone book and finding the name. Things have grown more difficult now that cell phones are widely used and many people do not even have landlines, and if they do their number may be unpublished.
Even with the widespread use of caller ID on most home phones, some numbers may appear without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to stop their details from appearing. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing times to provide a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.
There are two typical functions for these directories.
Searching for Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number comes up on your ID, or you need to identify cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name registered to the number in question. Just by entering the phone number you will be able to identify whoever is behind those phone calls in question.
People looking for this service include those wanting to check up on a number constantly texting their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no accessible directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they want to identify a name listed to a landline that may be unlisted. Anytime you have a phone number but aren't sure who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup website can help.
Searching for Addresses
another common purpose is to locate an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you plug into the information linked with a certain number most directories will deliver additional data as well, which may include the address of the landline or the address associated with a cell phone number.
This may not be a common need for most people, but it does have its uses in some situations. For example, take a parent desperate to track down a teenager who has run away or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses and names of locations the teenager may be located.
More common situations may be searching for addresses to mail out party invitations to your child's peers. If you have the phone number you can find their address and get the invite in the mail without calling or tracking down other busy people.
Lookup websites can also deliver access to other various types of data, including income brackets and address histories, 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 up to date reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal life demands certain information it is money well spent in the long run. The fee is necessary because this kind of information is not easy or free to research, collect, and save, so issuing it immediately to people such as you must also collect a fee to cover these operational costs.
There more than likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if they were compiled most likely a lot of the numbers would be unlisted just like many landline numbers today. The only way to gain access to such numbers is to put up a small charge either to complete a one time number search or to join a lookup service if you will need to access the directory on a regular basis.