BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's SBI Cards and Payment Services reported third-quarter profit below expectations on Tuesday, weighed down by higher write-offs.

Profit after tax fell 30% to 3.83 billion rupees ($44.3 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared to analysts' average expectations of 4.59 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.

Indian lenders and card issuers are grappling with asset quality stress, with higher delinquencies being reported in segments such as credit cards and personal loans.

SBI Card, which has also been facing elevated delinquencies over the last few quarters, had also reported a drop in profit in the previous quarter.

The company, backed by State Bank of India, said gross write-offs jumped 89% from last year to 13.54 billion rupees.

SBI Card's net interest margin (NIM) contracted 31 basis points year-on-year to 10.6%.

Overall spending by cardholders fell 11% to 860.93 billion rupees, while cards-in-force, or the sum of all credit cards issued, rose 10% from last year.

The company's revenue from operations was flat year-on-year at 46.19 billion rupees.

Its gross non-performing assets ratio improved slightly to 3.24% from 3.27% in the previous quarter, but was sharply higher than 2.64% a year ago.

($1 = 86.5310 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nishit Navin and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)