Here’s a deal no sensible person would sign: Hand a bank $50,000 for a year, and let the bank decide later what it’ll pay you.

Yet plenty of savers agree to exactly that. It’s called automatic renewal, and it’s built into plenty of certificates of deposit.

The way the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency explains it, if your CD renews automatically, the bank can roll your money into a new CD once any grace period ends — and the new CD earns whatever rate the bank happens to be offering that day.

Not the best rate. Its rate.

That rate can be lousy. The FDIC’s national rate for a 12-month CD was 1.76% in October, according to the agency’s monthly data published by the St. Louis Fed. Meanwhile, a 52-week Treasury bill was yielding 4.42% on Oct. 29, per the U.S. Treasury.

On $50,000, if your renewal rate matched that average, that’s the difference between earning about $880 in a year and about $2,210. Call it $1,330 for paying attention.

As a CPA and a former Wall Street investment advisor, I’ve seen a lot of ways people lose money. Losing it to inertia is the most avoidable. Here are five moves to make before your bank picks your rate for you.

1. Find your maturity date and your grace period

Dig out your account agreement or log in to your bank’s site and find two dates: when your CD matures, and when the grace period after that ends.

The grace period is your window. During it, you get to choose: renew, or take your money and go. Once it closes, an auto-renewing CD rolls into a new one, and pulling out early from there usually means a penalty.

How long is that window? It depends on your bank. The OCC says only that you may have one, so don’t assume it’s generous. Put both dates on your calendar today, with a reminder a week or two ahead.

If you hold CDs at more than one bank, make a simple list. Five minutes now beats a year stuck at a rate you’d never choose.

2. Actually read the renewal notice

Federal rules require a heads-up, but it’s easy to toss. Under the Truth in Savings rules, known as Regulation DD, banks must send a notice before an auto-renewing CD with a term longer than one month rolls over.

The timing: no later than 30 calendar days ahead of maturity. Or the bank can send it at least 20 days before the grace period ends, as long as that grace period is at least five days.

Do that math. With a five-day grace period, your notice could show up as little as 15 days before the CD matures. That’s not much time if it lands in a pile of junk mail.

What should it tell you? For CDs of a year or less, the notice must give the current maturity date, the new one if you renew, and the new rate and annual percentage yield if the bank knows them yet.

If the bank hasn’t set the new rate, the notice has to say so, tell you when it will, and give you a phone number to call. Call it. A rate you haven’t seen is a rate you shouldn’t accept.

3. Compare that rate to what your money could earn elsewhere

Here’s where most people go wrong: They see a renewal rate, it looks fine, and they let it ride. Fine compared to what?

Start with the benchmark. That 1.76% FDIC national rate for a 12-month CD is an average across banks. If your renewal offer looks like that, you’re being paid like everyone who didn’t shop.

Now look at Treasury bills. On Oct. 29, the Treasury’s daily table showed 13-week bills at 4.10%, 26-week bills at 4.30% and 52-week bills at 4.42%. Those numbers change every business day, so check them yourself before you decide.

T-bills carry another perk. The IRS says interest on Treasury securities is taxed by Uncle Sam but isn’t subject to state or local income tax. If you live in a high-tax state, that’s real money.

Even so, you could be paying that state tax without realizing it, as we explain in “Own Treasurys? You May Be Paying a State Tax You Don’t Owe.”

Prefer to stick with a CD? Banks compete for deposits, and the one holding your money now has no reason to offer its best rate to someone who never asks. You can compare current CD and savings rates in our Solutions Center.

If a better deal means moving to a new bank, open the new account first and make sure the money lands before you close anything. Then let the old bank know exactly why you left.

Quick gut-check — if your money advice is coming from random online influencers, you’re playing a dangerous game. I’ve been a CPA since 1981 and writing about money since before the internet existed. Sign up for the free Money Talks Newsletter and get expert advice that’s been tested by time.

4. Ladder instead of renewing one big CD

Rates are a moving target right now. On Oct. 28, the Federal Reserve left its benchmark rate at 3.75% to 4%. But two voting members, Lisa Cook and Beth Hammack, dissented. They wanted a quarter-point hike.

Nobody knows what the Fed does next, and I don’t trust anyone who claims to. That uncertainty is exactly why I wouldn’t bet all $50,000 on a single maturity date.

A ladder spreads the bet. Instead of one $50,000 CD, you might buy four $12,500 pieces that mature in three, six, nine and 12 months. Every few months, something comes due.

If rates rise, you reinvest each maturing piece at the higher rate. If they fall, the rest of your money is still locked in at today’s yields. And you’re never more than a few months from having cash available without a penalty.

The same idea works with T-bills or longer CDs. The point isn’t the exact schedule. It’s never having one date decide your fate. That’s what to do when even the experts fail to predict interest rates.

5. Turn off auto-renew — and if you missed the window, run the numbers

Call your bank or check your online account and ask to have the CD pay out at maturity instead of rolling over. If you can set that up ahead of time, do it. Then the decision is yours, not the bank’s.

Already missed it? You’re not necessarily stuck, but breaking a CD costs something. According to the OCC, federal law sets no maximum penalty, and its only minimum applies to money pulled within six days of deposit. Your account agreement spells out what your bank charges.

So do the math before you decide. Say your agreement charges 90 days’ interest, and your $50,000 just renewed at 1.76%. That penalty works out to roughly $217.

Moving the money to something paying 4.42% for the year would earn about $1,330 more than staying put, using simple interest. Subtract the penalty, and you’re still ahead by about $1,100. With a different penalty or a smaller rate gap, the answer could flip, so run your own numbers.

Bottom line

Automatic renewal is a convenience for the bank, not for you. It works because people get busy, toss the mail and let the money sit.

Don’t. Find the date, read the notice, compare the rate and make the call yourself. An hour of attention once a year can be worth more than a thousand dollars. That’s a better hourly wage than most of us earn at work.