Promo codes - will I have to make a new character?

So I'll ask this here and see if anyone here knows. I'd probably ask on the lodestone forum but square's got it down at the moment.

So over last weekend's beta I started my character and gained, I feel, a respectable number of levels (just shy of 60 total, I think). While it wouldn't be a huge setback since that was just one weekend of playing, I would prefer not to start a new character. However, I do seem to recall reading somewhere that when you put in a promo code in FF14, your existing characters don't get the promo item, all subsequent characters do.

So, does anyone know if I'll have to start a new character to get my preorder bonuses, or when I get the digital collectors edition upgrade? (I would have gotten the collectors edition in the first place, but all the online stores I looked at either sold out of the ps3 collectors edition as soon as they listed it, or never bothered listing it in the first place. And I wanted some of that physical stuff that came with it, too.) And would I have to if I were to, say, acquire an unused code for an onion helm?

No.

Codes are applied on the whole account, which includes already made characters. You'll get the items through the Moogle mail delivery service.

SE themselves has confirmed they will still be there.

That's what I said!

Alright. I'm sorry if it sounds like a stupid question, it's just that when I started looking into the Onion Helm trying to see if I could get myself an unused code (and I think I have) I started running into posts in various places from the original launch where people were lamenting that they had put in the code too late and had to restart their character in order to get the item.