What does IDFC Hello Cashback pay on offline spends?

The IDFC FIRST Hello Cashback pays 1% on offline spends: every in-store swipe earns ₹1 back per ₹100, as a credit on the statement. The same 1% applies to UPI payments made through IDFC FIRST Bank’s own app and to essential categories such as rent, utilities and education. All of it sits inside one ceiling of ₹1,500 of cashback per statement cycle, and online spends, which earn more, draw on that ceiling first, so the question for offline spend is how much of the cap is left.

How the card splits a statement cycle

The card sorts each transaction into one of three bands.

Online spends earn 3% on the first ₹10,000 in a cycle and 5% on everything above that. Online cashback has its own limit of ₹1,000 a cycle. Essential categories and fuel do not count towards the ₹10,000 threshold, even when you pay them online.

In-store swipes earn 1%. IDFC’s product page lists them in the same 1% band as essential-category spends and UPI through the bank’s app.

The card runs on RuPay, so it can be linked to UPI, but only UPI Scan & Pay made through the IDFC FIRST Bank app earns the 1%. The same payment made through Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm or any other UPI app earns nothing. At a shop counter, a QR scan from the wrong app and a card tap can look like the same purchase, and only the card tap pays.

Every band then feeds a single cycle total capped at ₹1,500.

How far 1% goes before the cap

At 1%, ₹30,000 of in-store spend in a cycle returns ₹300. A cycle with nothing but 1% spends would need ₹1,50,000 to fill the ₹1,500 cap.

The cap starts to matter once the card is also used online. Online cashback reaches its ₹1,000 limit at ₹24,000 of online spend: the first ₹10,000 at 3% returns ₹300, and the next ₹14,000 at 5% returns the remaining ₹700. Once that happens, ₹500 of room is left under the total cap, which is the 1% cashback on ₹50,000 of offline, essential or bank-app UPI spend.

Take a heavy cycle: ₹24,000 online and ₹60,000 in-store. On its own, the in-store spend would earn ₹600. With the online cashback already at ₹1,000, only ₹500 of it fits under the cap, so the last ₹10,000 of in-store spend in that cycle earns nothing. The statement does not flag this; the cashback line just stops growing.

What earns nothing, and what costs extra

Fuel, ATM cash withdrawals, EMI transactions and UPI through any app other than IDFC FIRST Bank’s own earn no cashback. Fuel gets a 1% surcharge waiver instead, on transactions from ₹200 to ₹5,000, up to ₹100 a month, which only refunds the pump’s surcharge.

Some 1% categories also carry a 1% fee from IDFC. Rent is charged 1% with a minimum of ₹249. Utilities are charged 1% above ₹20,000 in a cycle, and the same 1% applies to railway bookings above ₹25,000, tolls above ₹10,000 and fuel above ₹30,000. Education fees paid through a third-party app are charged 1% with a minimum of ₹249. A rent payment that earns 1% and pays a 1% fee nets close to zero, and a small one comes out behind because of the ₹249 minimum.

Cashback earned on a purchase is reversed if the purchase is refunded.

The card’s other terms

The card is secured against an IDFC FIRST fixed deposit from ₹10,000, with no income proof or credit history needed, and the credit limit is set at 100% of that deposit. The deposit keeps earning interest, and the limit caps how much you can swipe in a cycle.

The renewal fee is ₹1,000, waived on ₹2,00,000 of spend in the year. In-store swipes count towards that spend like any other purchase. Hotels and flights booked in the bank’s app earn an additional 1% cashback. International spends carry no forex markup, including ones billed in rupees.

What to check on your own statement

Three lines decide whether the card is paying what you expect on offline spends.

First, the cashback total for the cycle against ₹1,500. If online spends already brought it to ₹1,000, only ₹500 more can come from swipes, UPI and bills that cycle.

Second, how each UPI payment was made. A UPI debit from another app shows on the card statement but earns nothing, and it is easy to miss among the transactions that did earn.

Third, the fee lines. A rent payment, a large utility bill or a toll top-up above its threshold can carry a 1% charge that cancels the 1% it earned.

The facts table under this guide is the card’s catalog record, dated. Krediit tracks the cycle total against the ₹1,500 cap as you spend, so you can see the headroom left for offline swipes before the statement closes.