Not long ago, everyone had a standard phone in their home and finding a 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 landlines, and if they do their number may be unlisted.

Even with the development of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may come up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their name from coming up. Reverse phone lookup providers have stepped up to these changing demands to provide a very valuable service to modern phone users.

There are two typical uses for these services.

Searching for Names

If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number shows on your ID, or you need to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup directories can help you find out the name listed to the phone number of concern. Just by entering the phone number you will be able to identify the person who is behind the bothersome phone calls.

People looking for this service include those wanting to check up on a number constantly texting their spouse or children's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they need to identify a name connected to a home phone that may be unpublished. Anytime you have a phone number but are uncertain who it is connected to, a reverse phone lookup service can deliver the information.

Finding Addresses

The other typical purpose is to find an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you find the contact information linked with a particular number most services will deliver other sorts of information as well, such as the address of the landline or the address associated with a cell phone number.

This may not be a common need for some people, but it does have its benefits in some situations. Such as a parent desperate to find a teenager who has run off or is still out well past curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly uncover addresses as well as names of locations the child may be at that time.

Other situations may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have the phone number you can find their address and get the invite in the mail without calling and tracking down other busy parents.

These services can also deliver a connection to other sorts of information, 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 is a minor fee for any up to date reverse phone lookup service, but if your business or personal life requires certain information it is more than worth the payoff in the long run. The fee is required because this sort of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and store, so distributing it as needed to others such as you must also come with a charge to cover such working costs.

There more than likely will never be a public directory for cell phone numbers, and even if they were compiled it is probable the majority of the numbers would be unlisted just like many landline numbers today. The only way to obtain access to such phone numbers is to pay a nominal charge either to do a one time number search or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the service on a regular basis.