Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can get complicated. You may start out with a simple Google search, assuming it will quickly appear and you'll discover the information you need with minimal effort. Yet what actually comes up is a series of paid services which range from under a dollar for one number search to over fifteen dollars for a service subscription.
Revising your search to specify free reverse phone lookup brings additional pay services hiding behind claims to be free. They may allow you to enter the number for free and deliver very useless information such as the city or state, but in order to see the important information such as a name or address you will then be asked to hand over a fee.
Completely free reverse phone lookup is not possible at this point. Providers of this information put out great efforts and sometimes money to assemble information including unpublished home phone numbers, cellular numbers, and sometimes address histories. They have no purpose to collect this information other than to pass it on to consumers for a nominal charge.
whether you move forward from this point depends on how much you really want to identify the person connected to that phone number. In the age of identity fraud most people won't just pick the first site they find and hand over their credit card information. Finding the most reputable services is just as important as when you purchase clothing or pocketbooks through the web.
Finding the information you need isn't very difficult, once you access a proven service.
There are many competitive websites all with different fees and delivering different combinations of information. When you only want to determine the person registered with a particular phone number calling your home or want to determine exactly who your child is chatting with at all hours of the night, you probably don't have the time to compare different websites.
The easiest solution may be to go with a brand that many people have grown up with and use the online version of the yellow pages. There is a sense of security when you use a common popular name that has been around for years. You can search a phone number and get very basic information here without a fee, including whether the number is a cell phone or residential line and a map pinpointing the general location of a home or business. You won't get much more than that, especially if you are researching a cell phone or a residential number that is unlisted.
Be careful at this point because there will be links from these pages that promise more information, like names and desired addresses, for a charge. These are links to other webpages, so you no longer necessarily have the security of the yellow pages website so you should ensure the legitimacy of these databases just as you would with any other. Yellow pages itself is not going to reveal much information beyond a general location; you will need to search elsewhere for anything else, especially if you need to know about a cell phone or unpublished number.
The best way to find reverse phone lookup directories for basic information is to go to a proven service with a reasonable one time fee paid with a secure payment system. If you just want a one time number search then it is probably not worth the charge to sign up for a unlimited service. Locate one that provides a single lookup for a minor fee, often just a buck or two.
Paying a huge fee for very limited information or being asked to pay by sending financial information by email or other non-secure methods are flashing signals of a scam.