Difference Between Paid and Free Reverse Phone Lookup?
A free reverse phone lookup is an online service that allows users to find information about United States phone numbers. Phone lookup services have directories that provide the name and address of the person or business associated with the number, as well as other public records. Parties can use a free reverse phone lookup to find out who is calling you from an unknown number, or to lookup a number found in public records.
What is a Reverse Phone Lookup?
A reverse phone lookup is an online service used to obtain details associated with an unknown telephone number. It provides information like bio-data and business details linked with the unknown telephone number. This information is then used to identify the owner of the phone number. A reverse phone lookup is done by performing a search on that telephone number.
A reverse phone lookup can be a paid or free service. However, there are differences between paid and free phone search services, such as:
Cost
Paid reverse phone lookups charge either a one-off fee or a subscription for their services. But a free phone number lookup does not demand payment of any sort.
Details Provided
Paid reverse phone lookups offer more information about the telephone numbers. Aside from bio-data, paid reverse phone lookups can show social media accounts, other phone numbers, relatives, publicly available court records, residential address, phone type, photographs, court records, and even uncover the criminal records linked to the number. In contrast, free phone search tools provide very little or no details. Sometimes the only available detail is the name of the user.
Sources of Information
Paid reverse phone lookup service providers usually partner with mobile operators. This grants them access to extensive databases alongside extracting telephone numbers from public sources like public records, online directories, real estate records, phone books, and other proprietary sources. On the other hand, free phone searches mostly pool information from online public records, websites, and social media accounts.
Accuracy of Information
The information from paid reverse phone lookups is more reliable and accurate. This is because cross-referencing is carried out to validate the information, unlike what is obtainable with a free phone search.
What Numbers Can You Reverse Lookup For Free?
A free phone number search can be done for any telephone number, but the details available differ slightly depending on the type of telephone number. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE), over half of American households did not have a landline telephone. In 2017, Americans spent 4 times more money on cellular phone services than residential landline services.
Landline Phone Numbers
House numbers could be attached to landlines or cell phone numbers. A search result can reveal the address. This is easier if it is a landline because cell phone numbers are often unlisted and require paid services for more details.
Business Phone Numbers
A business phone number is a telephone number that is unattached to a specific device. So, it can be used by multiple individuals at the same time and on multiple devices. Also, it is possible to use business phone numbers in multiple locations. A business phone number can be a local number, toll-free number, vanity number, or voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) number.
A free phone search will yield very detailed results. It can even lead to the website or online business page linked to the number. This way, it is easy to get information like the business name, products, and services rendered, the business location, and legal information about the business.
Personal Cell Phone Numbers
Obtaining details from a free cell phone number lookup is the most difficult. There are no phone directories for these telephone numbers. Hence information is pooled and patched from various random sources online.
General details like the number’s carrier information, state, and zip code may be readily available. But other personalized information will be challenging to obtain, depending on the user's digital footprint.
How to Do a Free Reverse Phone Lookup
Deciding the appropriate platform or tool is the first step in a free phone search. Google, social media platforms, or online directories are valid tools. Websites that offer free online services are very rare, and proper assessment should be carried out to avoid dubious sites. Be wary of sites that request personal information or sites that take time to produce search results.
After deciding what tool to use, locate the search bar on the tool, enter the telephone number and click “Search.” If there is no result, modify the entry by including or removing hyphens. Don’t forget to put the area code, the first three digits of the telephone number, too. Search results for most business numbers are very detailed, but search results for personal cell phone numbers may show just the name and address of the user or, in most cases, be unlisted and not available to the public.
Alternative Free Reverse Phone Lookup Tools
Some tools are used to perform free reverse phone number lookups. These are search engines like Google, social media, and some other websites.
Although this is not their primary function, performing a free phone search with these tools is possible because most users enter their cell phone numbers, name, location, email address, and other basic information when signing up or creating accounts. So, it is possible to search for a user by phone number—except in cases where they restrict who can view their account information.
Google Reverse Phone Number Lookup
It is possible to use Google as a free number lookup tool. To do this, type the telephone number in the search bar and click “enter.” If the telephone number is on any site or blog that Google has indexed, it will be among the search results.
Using advanced search methods like enclosing the number in quotation marks, e.g., "(555) 111-2222," may result in a forced match. It eliminates irrelevant results and narrows it down to highly beneficial search results.
Google reverse phone number lookup helps identify business numbers, telemarketers, and popular scammers that have been blacklisted on websites. It may not yield many results for personal cell phone numbers.
Free Reverse Phone Search on Facebook
Although Facebook is well known for people search, it can also be used to identify a Facebook account that is linked to a telephone number. This is possible for accounts that are not set as private accounts. Also, Facebook users may keep personal information like email addresses and phone numbers hidden to avoid spam and online scams.
However, if this information is made public, all that is required is to open the Facebook app, enter the telephone number and do a free search. This will show the profile linked to the telephone number or any post where the number had been mentioned. If this doesn't produce a result, modify the search query by including or removing hyphens from the telephone number.
Free Reverse Phone Lookup With Name on LinkedIn
To avoid being spammed, LinkedIn users may choose not to include their phone numbers in their profiles. But for the few with their phone numbers, it is possible to use third-party apps to do a free reverse phone lookup with name.
Free Trial for Paid Websites
Lots of websites offer a free trial period for reverse phone lookups. This requires imputing credit card details for an automatic deduction after the trial period. The downside is that users could forget to unsubscribe from the service before the free trial ends. But it may be worth a try. An alarm or notification could be set as a reminder to unsubscribe from the service.
Other Websites
Another way to perform a free phone number search is using websites or apps offering these services for free. It is important to mention that many websites or mobile applications claim to offer this service for free but don't. They end up asking for a fee or even request that users enter their email addresses and other personal details, which is suspicious and not encouraged.
The way to find these websites is to enter a search query on Google; "free reverse phone lookup" or "reverse phone lookup free." The search results will display all the websites that claim to offer this service. It is important to assess these websites and possibly read online reviews about them before going on to use their service.
