London 2012 ticket payments nearing completion

Millions of people who applied for London 2012 tickets will know later whether they have been successful.

All card payments are due to be taken by midnight on Tuesday.

Organisers will then be contacting people whose cards have failed until 10 June, and people will be told their allocation by 24 June.

There were 20 million applications for the 6.6 million tickets available to the general public via the controversial ballot.

The system takes money from buyers' accounts before they know which tickets they have been allocated.

A spokeswoman for Olympic 2012 organiser Locog said: "We have said that all card payments will be taken by 31 May and are still on track for this.

"We will then spend time contacting people whose cards have failed for whatever reason, and give them time to get funds into their accounts or enable payment. This process will be ongoing until 10 June.

"People will be told their allocation by 24 June."

Many successful applicants are now trying to guess which events they will be going to see, whereas those who have not had payment taken are wondering if they will end up empty-handed.

Some 1.8 million people have applied for the tickets, requesting an average 11 tickets each to make a total of 20 million ticket applications.

Popular events have been many-times oversubscribed, with the men's 100m final receiving one million requests for just 20,000 seats.

A second round of sales, in late June, will initially offer unsuccessful first-round ticket applicants the first chance to buy those tickets still available.

It will take place on a first-come, first-served basis with the money paid up front.

The general public will later be able to apply for remaining tickets.

The prices range from £50 to £725 for the showpiece 100 metres final, and reach £2,012 for the opening ceremony on 27 July.

In total, 8.8 million tickets are available for the Games - about half of the remaining 2.2 million tickets have been issued to national Olympic committees, with the other half split between sponsors, the International Olympic Committee, guests and hospitality partners.

London 2012 is looking to make £500m from ticket sales as part of bid to raise £2bn through private means.

A further two million tickets will be available for the Paralympic Games. They go on sale later this year.