What Exactly is Reverse Phone Lookup

Typically, when you are thinking about someone you haven't haven't heard from in awhile or need to communicate with 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 take up room in their homes with the chunky paper phone books, but prefer to visit websites which have the same information and find what they need much quicker.

Yet problems arise in most people's lives where they receive 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 business or person you want to contact, so won't help much. With cell phones being so widely used these days it gets even more troublesome because there isn't a cell phone listing free to the community as with landlines. Clearly, technological advances have made another sort of phone number directory necessary.

Reverse phone lookup means just what the name states: it reverses the way you usually use a phone number listing. Rather than browsing for a name to locate a number or address, you look up a phone number to locate the name or even address of whoever the number is registered to.

Many people do not even know this can be done, yet with the development of reverse phone lookup websites it is now widely used by many businesses. It is also on the rise with people who get interested in a number for whatever reason. It is a new sort of phone book that may very well outdate the demand for phone books in the future.

If you are receiving a high volume of disturbing calls, whether they are annoying hang ups, rude pranks, or even telemarketers or collection services who don't leave a message but call nonstop, there is a way to figure out exactly who is making the calls by utilizing one of these websites.

You can check out yellowpages.com and use a free reverse phone lookup website for the most basic information or for listed home phone numbers, but there are two sorts of information that cannot be accessed by any other source besides a more detailed directory.

* If you have a number but no other information and want a corresponding name.

* When you have someone's cell phone or an unlisted home phone number and need a name, address, or other information. Whitepages.com is not likely to help with this type of information because it is not updated with the information you need.

Reverse phone lookup services spend a lot of time compiling information, ensuring it is as accurate as possible, and storing it all in an organized fashion so that it can be quickly accessed by consumers on demand.

A good bit of this information collected is not easy to find and some of it must be paid for as well. For instance, a legitimate, up to date listing will have to pay cell phone companies for accurate listings of phone numbers. As with any business, it is to be expected that you will be required to hand over a nominal charge to have access to their records.

The key to the charge is it should be low and fair, usually around a buck or so for a single phone number lookup and about 15 bucks for more long term subscription to the directory. Any service asking for a substantial charge for limited information retrieved should be avoided.

There are too many good websites available to throw away time and money on incomplete services, so ensure they can deliver the information you want before wasting your money.