Confused about the new 5.0 update

According to https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/star-wars/star-wars-the-old-republic/swtor-free-to-play-faqs the current level cap for free to play is 50. This is an older article but it is linked from http://www.swtor.com/buy which suggests it is still valid and http://www.swtor.com/info/overview also references a cap of 50 for free. Also given they haven't upped the F2P level cap for any of the other expansions and the 5.0 patch notes don't mention an increased level cap except the "to 70" one for subscribers I believe the answer is probably that your information is incorrect and that being stuck at L50 is in fact expected behaviour for you.

Lastly there is an FAQ on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/wiki/returning_player/expansions#wiki_what_is_the_state_of_digital_expansions_for_the_game.3F

This essentially says that you only have the Rise of the hutt cartel and shadows of revan expansion if you either brought them as standalone expansions or have subscribed for at least one month since October 27th 2015. These expansions are what provide the level cap upgrade to 55 and 60 respectively. This suggests it is possible to be a preferred player and still be capped to level 50 if you subscribed before the above date and haven't explicitly purchased either of the expansions.

It is possible that I have missed something. If you can say where you found the information that f2p players level cap was going up to 65 then it might be possible to investigate the claim further.

I just realised the original answer didn't address the character slots part of the question. From the 5.0 patch notes:

The available number of Character Slots have been updated:

• 52 slots for Premium Players
• 26 slots for Preferred Players
• 22 slots for Free to Play Players

So if you are preferred and still only have 22 slots then you may need to talk to customer services about your issue.