Olympic Games London 2012- How to Buy Tickets

Tickets for the Olympic Games 2012 go on sale from 15th March 2011 until 26 April 2011. The ticket prices vary widely, from £20 to £2,012. Prices will vary depending on the event, what seats you go for and whether you are under 16 or over 65. All tickets are being allocated by ballot, which will be conducted after the closing date of 26 April. You can apply for tickets at any time until 26 April, and there is no advantage to applying earlier rather than later, as long as you apply by the deadline.

To buy tickets, you must go to http://www.london2012.com and register an account. You can then see events and ticket prices to choose. You can apply for as many different events as you want to, however see below about paying for it.

 To buy tickets, you currently have to be 16 or over and a resident of the UK, or certain European countries.

Specifically, being resident in the UK includes:

Those who live in: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey), the Isle of Man; or Those who live in a UK Overseas Territory: Gibraltar, Anguilla, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, Falkland Islands, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, St Helena and St Helena Dependencies (Ascension and Tristan da Cunha), South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and The Turks and Caicos Islands.

Residents of the following European countries can apply:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

If you are not in one of the above countries you will be able to buy tickets from your National Olympic Committee or authorised reseller in due course.

Information on the eligible countries and territories taken from the London 2012 website.

The London 2012 Olympics has Visa as one of its main sponsors, so if paying by card, you have to use a Visa Card, either debit or credit card will do. Most households in the UK will have at least one Visa card, often a bank debit card.

Unfortunately, you will have to pay for all tickets you are successful for between mid-May and mid June (this is when the money will be taken from your card), but you won't know what events these are for until the end of June. Therefore make sure there is sufficient money in your account to cover the money (or sufficient credit limit on your credit card). A credit card is best to use if you have one, as you won't know how much money it will cost until the money is taken from your card (the maximum will be the cost of all tickets applied for).

If you don't have Visa Card you can always get a pre-paid Visa Card to use, and there are various ones to choose from.

Alternatively, you can pick up a paper application form at Lloyds TSB branches (or your local library if in Northern Ireland) and pay by cheque or postal order if you prefer that to using a Visa Card.

You can apply for as many tickets as you want to, but be aware that you might have to pay for all the tickets applied for. To stand the highest chance of getting tickets, you are best applying for more than one event. Each event has a maximum number of tickets you can apply for (this will vary from event to event) and you should receive either all the tickets you ask for, or none.

If you just apply for the cheapest tickets for the most popular events you are likely to be disappointed. You are likely to have a greater chance of getting tickets for less popular events, higher priced tickets, or events that due to their nature will have a large number of tickets available (such as football matches, as grounds are usually quite large and can accomodate 50,000+ people).

If you apply for lots of tickets and are 'lucky' enough to get more than you need, then you won't be able to sell them until next year when the official ticket re-selling website will launch. It is unknown yet what anti-touting measures will be in place, so don't assume you can just sell the tickets on Ebay!