Normally, when you are thinking about someone you haven't haven't heard from in awhile or need to locate an coworker who you don't have a phone number for, you simply go to the phone book and search for their last name. These days most people do not even take up room in their homes with the chunky paper phone books, but would rather use internet pages containing the same information and look it up much quicker.
Yet things happen in most people's lives where they obtain a phone number and need to identify who it belongs to. Old style phone books are designed on the knowledge of the name of the person you hope to reach, so offer little help. With cell phones being so commonplace these days it gets even more troublesome because there isn't a cell phone listing free to the community as we have with standard home phones. Clearly, technological advances have made another type of number listing essential.
Reverse phone lookup is exactly what the name states: it reverses the way you usually use a phone number listing. Rather than looking up a name to locate a number or address, you are using a phone number to retrieve the name or address of whoever the number is listed under.
Most people do not even realize this can be done, but with the invention of reverse phone lookup services it is now possible by many businesses. It is also on the rise with individuals who get concerned with a phone number for one reason or another. It is a different take on the phone book that may very well erase the need for paper phone books in the future.
If you are bothered by too many disturbing calls, whether they are childish hang ups, distasteful pranks, or even telemarketers or collection services who don't clearly identify themselves but call nonstop, it is possible to discover exactly who is making the calls by utilizing one of these websites.
You can go to whitepages.com and access a limited reverse phone lookup directory for the most basic information or for published home phone numbers, but there are two categories of information that cannot be retrieved by any other source other than a more detailed listing.
- * If you have a phone number but no more information and want a corresponding name.
- * When you have someone's cell phone or an unpublished residential number and want to find a name, address, or other information. Whitepages.com will not help with this type of information because it is not updated with the information you are searching for.
Reverse phone lookup directories spend a lot of time finding 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 lot of this information compiled is not that simple to obtain and some of it must be paid for in advance. For instance, a trustworthy, accurate website will have to purchase numbers from cell phone networks for accurate listings of numbers. As with any business, it is to be expected that you will have to pay a nominal charge to gain access to their information.
The key to the charge is it should be low and fair, typically about a dollar or so for a one-time phone number lookup and about fifteen bucks for more long term subscription to the |listings|directory|service}. Any site which requires a substantial charge for very little information delivered should be avoided.
There are too many valuable listings out there to waste time and money on inaccurate services, so be certain they can deliver the information you need before giving them your money.