Typically, when you are thinking about someone you haven't spoken to in awhile or need to contact an coworker who you don't have a number for, you simply go to the phone book and look up their last name. Nowadays, most people do not even waste space in their office or homes with the oversized paper phone books, but go to internet pages containing the same information and find what they need much quicker.
Yet circumstances occur in in everyday life where they receive a phone number and want to determine who it belongs to. Old style phone books are designed only to look up the name of the person you need to connect with, and therefore won't help much. With cell phones being so popular these days it gets even more complicated since there isn't a cell phone directory free to the public as with landlines. Obviously, technological advances have made another sort of number listing necessary.
Reverse phone lookup functions basically what its name suggests: it reverses the method in which you usually use a phone number directory. Rather than searching for a name to find a phone number or address, you use a phone number to locate the name or address of whoever the number may be listed under.
A lot of people do not even realize this is available, yet with the development of reverse phone lookup directories it is now common in the business world. It is also on the rise with people who become curious about a number for whatever reason. It is a new sort of phone book and could potentially outdate the need for phone books in the future.
If you are bothered by a lot of disturbing calls, whether they are annoying hang ups, distasteful pranks, or even solicitations and collection services who don't clearly identify themselves but call constantly, you can figure out exactly who is making the calls by utilizing one of these services.
You can go to whitepages.com and use a free reverse phone lookup directory for the most basic information or for listed home phone numbers, but there are two varieties of information that cannot be accessed by any other resource besides a more detailed service.
- * When you have a phone number but no other information and want a matching name.
- * If you have someone's cell phone or an unlisted landline number and want to find a name, address, or additional information. Whitepages.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 spend quite a bit of time collecting information, double checking that it is as accurate as possible, and saving it all in an organized listing so that it may be quickly used by consumers whenever needed.
A lot of this information compiled is not easy to locate and some of it must be paid for in advance. For example, a legitimate, well maintained directory will have to pay cell phone networks for accurate listings of numbers. In turn, it is to be expected that you will be required to hand over a small fee to have access to their records.
The key to the fee is it should be low and affordable, for the most part about a buck or so for a one-time phone number search and about 15 dollars for more long term subscription to the |listings|directory|service}. Any site that demands a high fee for very little information delivered should be avoided.
There are too many good directories out there to waste time and money on incomplete services, so make sure they can deliver the information you want before handing over hard earned money.