Finding cell phone numbers of friends, relatives, business associates and prank callers has become increasingly more challenging since the popularity of cell phones exploded on the market.

In the old days, everyone who had a landline phone could be located pretty easily by looking in your local public phone book or calling the operator. Well, those days are long gone and now millions of people have cell phones that are listed in numerous private directories - making them hard to find.

There are several services online who claim that you can use their directory to find a persons cell phone number or address using phone number for free.

Is this really true?

Unfortunately, when you go to use these free directories, you'll often find that in order for you to get any real information behind that cell phone number i.e. name, address, location, etc. You'll have to pay. That's right, they'll give you landline information for free, but if you want to know cell phone information for free, you can forget it.

Why?

Well, the secret that they don't tell you is that all directories that keep private cell phone information must pay for this information. It's not free to the directories since this information comes from various sources and can be a real hassle to pull together. So, there is no way they are going to offer the really good cell phone info for free. The directory needs to make back their cost, plus some.

Anyway, as you are doing your search for a free directory service, you should understand that this is how it works. Free means that you get bare bones info that's not really going to satisfy your needs.

Should You Pay for Reverse Phone Numbers?

This is a matter of personal choice, so you'll have to figure out how much you really want to know who is behind that phone number you have. The best directories will allow you access to their database for a one-time nominal fee. Then you can look up numbers for any reason as much as you want.

If you think you can benefit from this type of long-term access to a reverse phone directory, then by all means, go ahead and sign up. If you only want to use it for a special number and don't think you'll need this service in the future, then it may not be worth it. Depends on your own personal circumstances.

The good news is that the information you want to know about any cell phone number is readily available, anytime you need it.