Usually, when you recall someone you haven't haven't heard from in awhile or need to contact an coworker who you don't have a number for, you simply go to the phone book and find their last name. Yet in current times most people do not even waste space in their homes with the oversized paper phone books, but would rather use internet pages containing the same information and look it up much quicker.
Yet circumstances occur in in everyday life where they have a phone number and want to identify who it belongs to. Old style phone books are designed around knowing the name of the business or person you hope to connect with, and therefore offer little help. With cell phones being so widely used these days it gets even more difficult because there isn't a cell phone listing free to the community like with standard home phones. Apparently, technological advances have made another type of phone number listing necessary.
Reverse phone lookup means exactly what the name states: it reverses the method in which you usually use a number directory. Rather than browsing for a name to find a phone number or address, you use a phone number to retrieve the name or address of whoever the number may be registered to.
A lot of people do not even realize this can be done, but with the development of reverse phone lookup websites it is now possible in the business world. It is also on the rise with people who get curious about a phone number for one reason or another. It is a new sort of phone book and could potentially outdate the demand for paper phone books in the future.
If you get a high volume of 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 constantly, you can identify exactly who is connected to the calls by tapping into one of these services.
You can go to whitepages.com and find a limited reverse phone lookup service for very basic information or for published home phone numbers, but there are two sorts of information that cannot be found through any other means other than a more detailed directory.
- * When you have a number but no other information and must find a matching name.
- * When you have someone's cell phone or an unpublished landline number and need a name, address, or additional information. Whitepages.com will not help with these sorts of information because it is not equipped with the information you are searching for.
Reverse phone lookup services put out quite a bit of time compiling information, double checking that it is as updated as possible, and saving it all in an organized listing so that it can be quickly utilized by consumers on demand.
Much of this information retrieved is not easy to find and some of it must be paid for as well. For example, a legitimate, well maintained website will have to purchase numbers from cell phone networks for updated listings of phone numbers. As with any business, it is understandable that you will be required to hand over a small charge to gain access to their information.
The key to the charge is it should be low and fair, for the most part about a buck or so for a one-time phone number lookup and around 15 dollars for more long term subscription to the |listings|directory|service}. Any service asking for a large charge for very little information delivered should be avoided.
There are too many good listings out there to throw away time and money on inaccurate resources, so make sure they are offering the information you need before handing over your money.