Not long ago, everyone had a landline phone in their home and searching for a phone number or address simply required opening the phone book and finding their name. Things have grown 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 invention of caller ID on most home phones, some numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to block their name from appearing. Reverse phone lookup directories have responded to these changing demands to offer a very useful service to resourceful phone users.
There are two common uses for these directories.
Finding Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your ID, or you want to figure out cellular phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can assist in finding the name listed to the phone number of concern. Just by typing in the phone number you will be able to identify the person who is initiating those calls of concern.
People needing such services include those wanting to check up on a number often phoning their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no public directory for cell phone numbers. Other people may use lookup directories when they need to find a name connected to a home phone that is unpublished. If you have a phone number but aren't sure who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup service can help.
Locating Addresses
The other typical use is to identify an address for someone, whether you know the name of the person or not. Once you plug into the information connected with a certain phone number most directories will deliver additional information as well, which includes the address of an home phone or the address listed to 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 example, take a parent in a rush to find a teenager who has run away or is still out well past curfew. If they can come up with numbers from the teenager's bedroom or cell phone a lookup directory could quickly uncover addresses and names of locations the child may be located.
Other situations may be searching for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's classmates. If you have their phone number you can get their address and easily deliver the invite without calling and tracking down other busy people.
These services can also deliver a connection to other various types of information, including income brackets and address histories, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint to the business or home's location.
There is a nominal price for any legitimate reverse phone lookup website, but if your business or personal situation requires particular information it is worth the money in the long run. The charge is unavoidable because this variety of information is not simple or free to research, pull together, and save, so dispensing it on demand to people like you must also include a charge to cover these working expenditures.
There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if there were it is probable many of the numbers would be unlisted as is the case with many landline numbers right now. The only way to obtain access to such numbers is to pay a small charge either to complete a single phone number search or to join a lookup directory if you will need to access the directory long term.