What is a Reverse Phone Lookup?

Typically, when you remember someone you haven't haven't heard from in awhile or need to communicate with an old friend who you don't have a number for, you retrieve the phone book and look up their last name. These days most people do not even take up room in their homes with the oversized paper phone books, but prefer to visit websites which have the same information and look it up much quicker.

Yet problems arise in in everyday life where they have a phone number and need to determine who it is connected to. Old style phone books are designed only to look up the name of the business or person you hope to reach, and therefore offer little help. With cell phones being so widely used these days it gets even more difficult since there isn't a cell phone directory accessible to the public as we have with residential numbers. Obviously, technological advances have made another sort of number compilation essential.

Reverse phone lookup functions basically what the name states: it reverses the method in which you normally use a phone number listing. Instead of searching for a name to get to a phone number or address, you use a phone number to locate the name or even address of whoever the number is listed under.

A lot of people do not even know this can be done, but with the development of reverse phone lookup websites it is now possible by many businesses. It is also becoming quite popular with individuals who find themselves curious about a number for for various reasons. It is a more modern form of the phone book and may very well eliminate the demand for paper phone books in the future.

If you are receiving too many unwanted phone calls, whether they be childish hang ups, distasteful pranks, or even solicitations or bill collectors who don't leave a message but call at all hours, you can discover exactly who is making the calls by tapping into one of these websites.

You can check out whitepages.com and access a limited reverse phone lookup website for very basic information or for published landline numbers, but there are two categories of information that cannot be retrieved through any other means besides a more detailed directory.

  1. * When you have a phone number but no other information and must find a corresponding name.
  2. * When you have someone's cell phone or an unlisted landline number and need a name, address, or other information. Yellowpages.com is not likely to help with this type of information because it is not updated with the information you are searching for.

Reverse phone lookup directories put out a lot of time obtaining information, keeping it as updated as possible, and saving it all in an organized listing so that it may be quickly used by consumers as needed.

A good bit of this information retrieved is not that simple to locate and some of it they have to pay for as well. For instance, a legitimate, accurate listing will have to pay cell phone companies for accurate listings of phone numbers. As with any business, it is only reasonable that you will be required to pay a small fee to gain access to their records.

The deal about the fee is it should be low and fair, usually around a dollar or so for a single phone number lookup and about 15 bucks for more long term subscription to the |listings|directory|service}. Any service which requires a substantial charge for very little information delivered should be avoided.

There are too many good directories available to waste time and money on inaccurate resources, so make sure they can deliver the information you want before giving them your money.


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