Subscription Vs Contract, Renewing current subscription VS discounted price for new subscription

[scottbrothersmachine]

Hi,

I'm looking for some clarification on paid subscriptions. I currently have a "contract" through an Autodesk partner. It is up for renewal. I did not need to take advantage of the resources offered by the third party partner,  and Autodesk is offering deeper discounts for new subscriptions. That being said, I went for the lower price offered directly through Autodesk and bought a new subscription. I am using Fusion360 and the Manufacturing extension.

After the purchase I can see all 4 of the subscriptions in my online Autodesk account. The two that are about to expire, listed as "contract"(s) and the recently purchased are listed as a "subscription"(s) I am wondering what, if anything is the difference for me as the end user. 

Also, what is the difference between renewing current subscriptions and starting new subscriptions? As far as I can tell from reading online, if you buy a new subscription under the same Autodesk account, you will have access to all the files from an expired subscription. So what is the loss in buying a new subscription for a lower price (If available near time of renewal) rather than renewing the current subscription?

Finally, with my current contract about to expire, as well as the recently purchased subscriptions in my Autodesk account, Fusion360 is still warning me that my subscriptions is going to expire soon. Will it automatically switch to the newer subscription when the old expires? Or do i need to activate the new somehow. I'm not seeing any options to choose which subscription to use within the software.  I tried to redownload the software prompted from the subscription page online, with no change.

Any insight and or help would be appreciated,

-Ransom