Yeah, kinda don't want to go to jail... you know, what with the negative skill points and all. Is there a way I can pay off that bounty of 1080 coin without going to jail. Guards stop me and there is only fight or go to jail options.

You might be able to pay it off at the Jarl's Palace.

Skill points aren't lost. The progress you've gained in some of the skills will be set back a certain amount, depending on the sentence. You can't lose skill points, or levels, by staying in jail.

Sounds like a challenge, get to the Jarl before all his guards talk to you or kill you.

When you are a member of the thieves guild, you get an option to pay off the guard without jail time, don't know the limits though only did it twice. I believe theres also a perk in the speech tree to bribe.

Where can I join the thieves guild... I heard it's in the town on the far lower right of the map in a sewer or something.

Riften, in the Ratway.

i had a bounty in the rift region once and the guards in the rift settlements attcked me on sight, so next time i was in riften i approached a guard started a conversation and was able to pay the 120 gold fine, he confiscated all of my stolen items though (which fortunatelly weren t that valuable at that time)

Thanks... was going to join anyways.