Spent ₹35k on IDFC FIRST Hello Cashback card by repeatedly topping up ₹1k limit, but only got ₹78 cashback?! Should I close it?

Hey everyone,

I'm fairly new to credit cards. I initially got an FD-backed IDFC FIRST Hello Cashback Credit Card (10k limit) to start building my credit history.

Recently, I had around ₹35,000 in online expenses. Since my limit was only 10k, I used a workaround: I spent ₹1k, immediately paid back ₹1k to clear the limit, and repeated this cycle over and over throughout the month until I totaled ₹35k in spending.

Despite the card marketing up to 5% cashback on online spends, my statement generated just ₹78 as cashback.

Honestly, this feels like a complete waste of time. I'm thinking of closing this IDFC card altogether.

To ensure my credit history isn't erased or severely impacted long-term, I recently took a Lifetime Free Utkarsh SuperMoney FD card with a ₹500 FD (₹450 limit) just to keep a non-zero credit line open permanently.

A few questions for the community:

Why was the cashback so low? Is there a strict monthly cap, or did repeated limit topping/repayments void the rewards?

Does credit cycling flag my account? Does repeatedly paying off and re-using a small credit limit in the same billing cycle trigger red flags with IDFC or CIBIL?

Should I close the IDFC FIRST Hello Cashback card and pull my ₹10,000 FD back, or will it hurt my CIBIL score even though the Utkarsh card is active?