It used to be that everyone had a landline phone in their home and finding a phone number or address simply required opening the white pages and finding the name. It is often more complicated now that cell phones are in common use and many people do not even have home phones, and if they do their number may be unpublished.
Even with the development of caller ID on most home phones, many numbers may show up without an identifying name and there are ways for callers to prevent their details from coming up. Reverse phone lookup providers have responded to these changing demands to offer a very valuable service to resourceful phone users.
There are two typical functions for these services.
Finding Names
If you are receiving calls from someone and only a number is revealed on your caller ID, or you want to figure out cell phone callers, reverse phone lookup services can assist in finding the name registered to the phone number in question. Just by entering the phone number you will be able to identify whoever is responsible for the calls of concern.
People looking for lookup directories include those who need to check up on a number often calling their spouse or teenager's cell phone, since there is no phone book for cell phone numbers. Others may use this when they need to identify a name registered to a landline that may be unpublished. Whenever you have a number but don't know who it belongs to, a reverse phone lookup directory can help.
Searching for Addresses
The other typical purpose is to locate an address for someone, whether you know their name or not. Once you gain access to the information linked with a specific number most directories will give additional data as well, such as the address of an home phone or an address listed to a cell phone number.
This may not be a typical need for some people, but it does have its benefits in some situations. For instance, consider a parent needing to find a teenager who has run away or has not returned home well past curfew. If they can find phone numbers from the teenager's belongings or cell phone a reverse phone lookup could quickly tell them addresses as well as names of places the child may be at that time.
Other situations may be looking for addresses to send out party invitations to your child's friends. If you have their phone number you can get their address and mail out the invitation without calling and tracking down other busy parents.
These services can also give you access to other various types of data, such as income brackets or address histories, and one site even gives a map with an general pinpoint of where the home or business is located. There will be a minor fee for any relevant reverse phone lookup directory, but if your business or personal life requires accurate data it is more than worth the payoff in the long run. The charge is required because this variety of information is not easy or free to research, compile, and store, so distributing it as needed to consumers such as you must also collect a fee to cover such serviceable costs.
There likely will never be a phone book for cellular numbers, and even if there were most likely many of the numbers would be unpublished just like many home phone numbers right now. The only way to gain access to these numbers is to pay a nominal charge either to complete a one time phone number lookup or to join a lookup directory if you will be using the service long term.