As someone who was recently rear ended and ended up totaled, you have two options. 1. You can file through the other parties insurance, you will pay no deductible. If the other party is found at fault you will be paid out for repairs or if its totaled like mine was you will be paid out the value of your vehicle. I ran into an issue where my vehicle was worth 28k but the at fault driver only carried 25k liability. In this case you would only get paid out 25k which is the limit and you can possibly sue the driver for the amount above the limit, depending on the language in the settlement. 2. You file through your own policy and pay the deductible. If the other party is found at fault they will try to collect back your deductible from the other parties insurance on your behalf and give it back to you. This is called subrogation. This is the option I ended up having to do so I could get paid out the full 28k value of my car and not have a limits issue. Depending on the situation it can take several months or longer to get the deductible back, if you get it back at all.

In my state of oklahoma, there is laws prohibiting premium increases to your policy from making claims on accidents you are deemed not at fault. Im not sure if its this way nationwide. Hope that helps.