Contacts Retrieval

The title says it all,more or less,just getting my ducks in a row before proceeding:
A friend of mine recently got a new Android,old device also a late model Android (FWIW,both on Lollipop).

Different SIM Card sizes,older model a Micro,newer a Nano.

Anyhoo,this leads me to where I am ATM,haven't seen either phone or SIM yet in-person.

A couple questions:

1) If the contacts were stored on the SIM Card,but,the card is deactivated,are the contacts stored on it retrievable?
If so,x-ferring would be as simple as getting a SIM Card cutter & installing the old card in the new phone & moving the contacts elsewhere (Google/device storage/etc...)

2) The old device has been factory reset.My question here is this:
If the contacts were stored on the device itself,is there any way to retrieve the contacts?
I've heard of desktop PC software/programs that can retrieve data from wiped phones.
Is this stuff legit & if so,anyone have any recommendations on which is best &/or least expensive?

TIA!

 

THX!
Turns out the contacts were indeed stored on the old SIM Card.
X-ferring 'em over to the new phone was easy,she used another phone & used Bluetooth for x-ferring.

^^^^^^^^^^^
Bookmarked.............

Thanks again everybody,the help/ideas are much appreciated.