Cannot link contacts to new android phone

[AC Question]

I have a very baffling situation.
Just bought a new Moto G4 Plus. Absolutely cannot get any of my contacts up despite using the sam SIM. The accounts listed on my current Samsung S4 are Google, and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Oddly, the Google account has the same name as my Hotmail account. And the Microsoft Exchange account is linked to my Hotmail account. The whole thing confuses me. If I log into my Google account, it shows my Samsung as an active device, but, if I try to move all my contacts from my phone to Google (using my phone) a message says 'no phone account to merge to'.
I completely don't get it.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! First things first -- where are the majority of your contacts saved? Are they in your Google Contacts in the cloud (i.e., if you go to contacts.google.com on your desktop browser, do you see them there)? If so, then they should all be synced to the phone's Contacts app, assuming you've logged the phone into that Google account.

Few phones actually save contacts to the SIM card these days -- it's pretty limited storage there anyway.